AUGUST

All my memories coming in

like wet cats from the rain.

Mewing, mewing.

Running their sharp little tongues

across it all.

The dock folded out atop the lake water like a limb.

The swinging bench for two.

Southern grass with its whetted edges.

It’s quite possible I never really left.

That I am still there every morning

with the sunrise,

lifting boats above our shoulders,

hefting oars into oarlocks.

Like most work, it was most satisfying

only after it was done.

Megan J. Arlett was born in the UK, grew up in Spain, and now lives in Texas where she is pursuing her PhD. The recipient of two Academy of American Poets Prizes, her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Best New Poets 2019, Best New British and Irish Poets, The Kenyon Review, Ninth Letter, Passages North, Prairie Schooner, Third Coast, and elsewhere.