It Will All Work Out

By Shasta Meehan



I’ve lost track of the miles that lay between us and his addiction
and with them the hope that stretches wide and fearless across the river

to be there again on the road that snakes the sea
to see the reflected light from prophetic clouds glistening in his eyes

a place where innocence still lives
where cruelty is drowned by sweet kisses

we stand together on the cathedral cliffs along the Applegate
I am too frightened to jump so he throws us in together and we fall like lead

I’d like to once more flutter my eyes so as to catch the colors of his edges
to try and catch something of him that will not hurt me so bad

my father who loved but could not live as others live
my self a girl who knows the wanting of a father will never end

he calls me from the redwoods of my childhood
where memory exists as the charred farewell of wildfire

he is almost at the final mile
his body a drip that can’t be fixed

his sorrow bottomless, our dreams surrendered
my king, my monster, the haunt of my heart

he thinks when he is gone that our story can be made over
that we will go together as water goes under the bridge

but I think I might have been the bridge and he the water
and our story, this life, continues to flow not over but under me

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Shasta Meehan is a landscape designer currently living in Santa Fe, NM. She grew up in the pacific northwest which continues to inform both her written and botanical work. Her poetry has been published in the Red Coyote Review and by the Oregon Poetry Association.