Photo by Janna Knittel
Sleeping in the truck
on long drives home from camping,
how rumble and rock swayed you
into dreams, how adult voices
murmuring from front seats
were both blanket and pillow,
how light-dark-light fluttered
just outside consciousness
once you arrived in town,
how you woke to crunch
of gravel driveway not knowing
what time was and staggered
upstairs to bed? Your skin
holds memories of sun,
coldness of lake water. You still
hear the rubber rowboat squeak,
rasp of sand on bare feet, chipmunks
inviting themselves to meals.
Each year you relearn
how mountain nights deliver
chill along with stars,
campfire smoke soaks your clothes,
how you never would grow up
to be someone who did not remember.
Janna Knittel lives in Minnesota but still calls the Pacific Northwest “home.” Janna is the author of Real Work (forthcoming from Nodin Press, 2022) and Fish & Wild Life (Finishing Line Press, 2018) and has published in the journals Between These Shores Literary and Arts Annual, Blueline, Constellations, Cottonwood, North Dakota Quarterly, and The Wild Word as well as the anthologies The Experiment Will Not Be Bound (forthcoming from Unbound Editions, 2022) and Waters Deep: A Great Lakes Anthology (Split Rock Review, 2018). Recognition includes grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board and the University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts.
Featured image courtesy the poet.
