by Rebecca Fisher
I dubbed it my favorite spot.
You said write letters from here. I often would,
first shoving aside ten curling irons and throwing a lump of
laundry to the floor.
Both windowpanes swung outward,
one left,
one right,
cardboard mending broken glass.
The window was naked, not earning curtains until mid-July
but by then I didn’t care.
Living with twenty-nine girls cured me of my modesty,
permitting me to strip in front of an open window.
I would sit here,
just sit,
cross-legged on the dresser underneath the window
like my Hopi neighbors. When monsoons opened the sky, I watched from here-
rain pouring from Heaven and mingling with playground gravel,
collecting in trash bags and empty cans of peaches,
plinking ripples into the swimming pool.
From the open window I soaked huge breaths of wet, clean air,
my dry face just inches away
from sheets of water.
When afternoon heat faded into the forest
I came to press fingerprints on the glass.
Darkness bled into the room like ink onto canvas.
I watched stars appear, slowly forgetting
laborious days, eight hours each,
spent in my country store in a backwoods lodge.
Eventually, tired of the window seat, I climbed
out between the swinging panes,
placing my feet on the shingles.
My bare toes gripped the coarse wood, sloping
toward the edge and the sliver I’d have for weeks.
I knew your toes gripped city pavement
where hot rays arched the Phoenix sky. Five hundred miles seemed thousands too many-
I wondered if paychecks bound my kite too tightly. Cutting strings to see you would
never finance another semester.
So here, I stayed,
proving my cursive honorable on a contract.
My mind hastened the calendar, and my eyes
watched dark, tall pines hold up the sky.
Rebecca Fisher is an English major from Shelley, Idaho. She has wanted to be a writer since the second grade, although this is her first time writing poetry. In her free time (which isn‘t much) she likes to tie quilts, dance the sugar push, and type on her laptop named Versa. Her greatest weakness is afternoon naps and her favorite book is Alice in Wonderland.