A Curse or a Gift

by Sarah E N Kohrs

remembering those like Hayden Kennedy


I saw a blue-jean sky, not overhead,
but to the side. Beside & up a red cord

threaded the cold crag en-      circled
by its own breath. From          there

the whole world curved          away.
I was beyond the zero-G          flame.

No birds, just breeze,               which seemed
to flicker the names of             those I had lost

like prayer flags strung           from here
to there. If the stars were         bells that

tolled for them, would we       go mad
without a place for silence?    The ascent

is like the arms of frothy           hurricanes.
Moments to churn. A sun       to find.

In that space, when there's      no more up,
we pause in the storm's eye.   We listen

and listen and listen. Hoping to hear

---

Sarah E N Kohrs is an artist and writer, with over 80 journal publications in poetry and photography. She has a teaching license, endorsed in Latin and Visual Arts, and homeschools, and creates with clay in her pottery studio. SENK lives in Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, kindling hope amidst asperity. http://senkohrs.com.