Letter
by Jordan Ranft
Image: “Salmon Falls River Marsh” by Stefanie Diamond
Mom, haven’t you heard not to count your dogs
before they die? The road between us clings
to the mountain’s skirt, drags its head through
old pine bristle, dipped an index in the corner
of the lake. Something good is there, like a petal
pressed into a bookmark. The rain clouds
renovate the sky, drape silver linen
on the bus stops. All is satin, all is silk. I found
confessions, we brought dad home in a mason jar.
All this time, a ceramic fox slept in his ashes.
Myth can’t help but to look toward the lens
and wink. We’ve been boxed about the ears.
You taught me three times how to mend
a button to my sleeve. I’m sorry for the loss
and also for puking on my bed. I’m sorry
dad died and the dog will too.
But look, he jumped on the counter
to steal a croissant. Slipped between the lips of
the door, eyes eclipsed with fog. He’s still in there.
We all are, even the dead.
Jordan Ranft is a Best of the Net and Pushcart-nominated poet. He placed third at the 2015 National Poetry Slam representing Team Berkeley. His chapbook, Said The Worms, was published by Wrong Publishing in 2023. His work appears or is forthcoming in Poetry Online, Boulevard, Frontier Poetry, Passages North, and others. He lives in Northern California, where he works as a therapist.
Website: https://jordanranft.wordpress.com/ Instagram: @Jordan_Ranft
Stefanie Diamond is an up and coming NH artist. After retiring from her work as a physician assistant in 2020, she returned to her love of art. She paints mostly in watercolor, but also enjoys oil paints. Most recently she is focusing on plein air painting. She likes the immediacy of this process as well as the looseness required. Art has become the one place where she is able to be totally present.
Painting makes issues of politics, war, climate change more tolerable, and connects her to the world.