Poem: “A Home Away From Words”
A Home Away From Words I slip my lanky self into the silver-smiling lake and swim along the shore to watch the lakeweed sway, green and grey, and swarming, fleeting fish the size of sardines and salad plates. I stop to rest on a rock shaped like a mushroom, slick with hairy green moss, where I try to stand until I slide off and stroke back through pondweed sprouting up from the darkness below where dead trees lie, sodden, broken, and studded with shells. In the distance I see my love on shore, reading, and watching out for me. He knows I have a yearning sadness in my heart that eases when I swim on and on without thinking, into the arms of the woman I become, caressed by water, my home away from words.
Freya Manfred’s (she/her) tenth book of poetry is When I Was Young and Old from Nodin Press — including the work above. Her memoir, Frederick Manfred: A Daughter Remembers was nominated for a Minnesota Book Award and an Iowa Historical Society Award, and her second memoir is Raising Twins: A True Life Adventure. freyamanfredwriter.com
