If Virginia is for lovers

by Anonymous

where does that leave me?

True, I met my lover in Virginia,

but I’m still here and she’s in New York City.

I’ll be a displaced Southerner in a Walker Percy novel,

visiting her on holidays

and the odd weekend

We’ll walk around the city

Museums

Dinner

Bed

Love

And then I’ll be back to school again

To Virginia, which is for lovers

But not mine

Rerouting

by Isabel Ryan ‘21

in between 

sagittal cuts of a geode,

a canyon of sulcus, 

I make a left instead of a right.

cool quiet diffuses through a cracked window. 

pink earth is humming

songs of unexplored regions.

neurons are synapsing, 

a string of daisies 

made fit for a crown: 

we can be in control over our grief

with practice.

the brain can rewire itself.

a jigsaw puzzle saved for a rainy day. 

I revel in connecting the raindrops

falling from thickening gray matter.

cortices cultivate in time. 

my grip holds

when the road ends.  

snapping out of 

my scenic detour, I

refer back to the map 

of places to stop:

the groceries

the drycleaners

the post office

work

rerouting,

I just can’t get 

this idea of losing myself

out of my head.