Escape

by Katherine L. Gordon

I dream a wee house in the woods,

no ever-cheery staff checking

to see if in-mates still alive,

have they filled out menus

have they joined bus tours

to places to see again...and again.

I curl up in familiar chair

brought from house where I really lived,

read books of escape

plots of solo adventure,

assure them all is well

while I secretly pack and plan:

emigration, vanishings to unmapped islands

where no one dies alone

because the ever-shifting sea

will lap them.

* * * * *

"Escape" is from Katherine L. Gordon's poetry collection Caution: Deep Water.  

Katherine L. Gordon is a rural Ontario poet, publisher, judge, editor and reviewer, working to promote the voices of women poets around the world, as they are now flowering into acclaim. She has many books, chapbooks, anthologies and collaborations with fine contemporaries whose work inspires her. Her collection, Caution: Deep Water, deals with the shock of leaving one’s home for the cultural phenomenon of retirement homes, expensive ghettoes for the vulnerable elderly. Her poems have been translated and awarded internationally.