Out walking

by Lauren Camp

as I have each night this week—

20 minutes to dusk

it’s coming on summer
chamisa not yet in flower but the heat rising 84 degrees

the beginning of night fueled by last moments of day

time is calmer
fringed with heat and the first wordless promise

of breeze

the sun still pricks my skin but the mountain stands by

ready to catch it

and now I understand how you can tell me stage 4 inoperable cancer

without choking on fear

because dark will come on as it does

every night

so let it

* * * * *

"Out walking" was first published in Adobe Wall Anthology and is part of the author's poetry collection The Dailiness (Edwin E. Smith Publishing, 2013).

Lauren Camp’s newest book is Took House (Tupelo Press, 2020). Her poems have appeared in The Los Angeles Review, Pleiades, Poet Lore, Slice, DIAGRAM and other journals. Winner of the Dorset Prize, Lauren has also received fellowships from The Black Earth Institute and The Taft-Nicholson Center, and finalist citations for the Arab American Book Award, the Housatonic Book Award and the New Mexico-Arizona Book Award. www.laurencamp.com