Image: Unsplash, downloaded (https://unsplash.com/photos/gray-asphalt-road-between-green-trees-during-daytime-xAtPFINNagQ) 04.11.2023.
Guiding Fire
—after Rolf Jacobsen
As a way to get back home
I look everywhere for the roads
I barely recall—In the absolute
quiet, you can hear
other voices
guiding you back
again—In the deep end of November
dusks, you begin to see
paper lanterns light up
along the old dirt roads—
It takes so long to get there
and it takes another lifetime
walking slowly
toward home.
About the Author: Alexander Etheridge has been developing his poems and translations since 1998. His poems have been featured in The Potomac Review, Scissors and Spackle, Ink Sac, Cerasus Journal, The Cafe Review, The Madrigal, Abridged Magazine, Susurrus Magazine, The Journal, Roi Faineant Press, and many others. He was the winner of the Struck Match Poetry Prize in 1999, and a finalist for the Kingdoms in the Wild Poetry Prize in 2022. He is the author of, God Said Fire, and the forthcoming, Snowfire and Home.
