Thank You

by Sandra Kolankiewicz

Joshua J. Cotten

To realize you are free, you just need to see another person acting without fetters, floating or dancing, soaring in the blue or skimming the surface of a well-stocked pond. How could I have known who I was meant to be till I saw you being who you are? There’s a word for what you did for me, and though it’s not an impolite one, the term’s embarrassing because I could not do it on my own, needed your example to realize there was no gate on the fence that was holding me in, just a stroke of India ink I mistook for shadow, one more turn in the road I didn’t want to take but which brought me to a lovely view, you and I standing on this berm, this bluff, on this vantage point of departure to which we may or may not return together, river swift below.

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Sandra Kolankiewicz’s poems have appeared widely, most recently in Adelaide, London Magazine, New World Writing and Appalachian Heritage. Turning Inside Out was published by Black Lawrence. Finishing Line has released The Way You Will Go and Lost in Transition.