Sarah Russell - Hegira

Those dream-filled summer nights, 

a wail, anguished as a banshee,

pierced the rusty screen.

Then the rhythmic clatter grew

until the bed and I would tremble.



Let me come too, I whispered,

but it never heard, 

or didn't understand,

or didn't care about a little girl

and a gallant torn-eared bear.



The rumbling, shaking wraith 

moved on, its cry waning to an echo,

my heartbeat clinging to the cadence

of away from here, away from

here, away.













Sarah Russell is in metaphor rehab after spending many years teaching, writing and editing academic prose. Her short stories and poems have appeared in anthologies and online venues including Poppy Road Review, The Houseboat, and Misfit Magazine. You can find more of her work at www.SarahRussellPoetry.com.