Your ashy
Remains in me
Like eighty five tree rings of memories
Densely packed lessons
I could not learn
Until the time came for the sky’s lightning powered winds to
Push, crack its trunk
Until the time came for dampened dirt to
Call it’s burrowing and soil softening worms
Earth says I cannot learn
Until She begins your entering
into what’s next in
a life-well lived.
-Hokis
Hokis {n., /hō/kēs/ Armenian for “my soul“ or ‘my beloved.”} channels zir trauma-inoculated mistrust in humanity and love for puzzles into unfolding poems. Ze has worked as a community organizer, high school teacher, and mindful body educator. Ze is currently Senior Editor of Headline Poetry. Zir work can be found in Tiny Seed Literary Journal, Line Rider Press, and Indie Blu(e) Publishing.