“one”

by Susan Barry-Schulz

The lake dark and smooth for now

brings me back. We raced through packed

days craved the night air. Bare feet on cool 

sand. Far off storms. Were we in love or was 

it just the sum of heat plus time? Sick from 

too much beer you stayed close. Hand in hand 

on the porch steps your blue eyes shine. I miss 

the strength I had then. Your blue lined notes 

found me well. I took the bus to the toned 

curve of your calves. I could run 

for miles on those hills and I did. 

You cut life short. I went on for years 

flecked by the moon dark and smooth 

as a great lake for now.

Susan Barry-Schulz grew up just outside of Buffalo, New York. She is a licensed physical therapist living with chronic illness and an advocate for mental health and reducing stigma in IBD. Her poetry has appeared in The Wild World, New Verse News, SWWIM, Barrelhouse online, Nightingale & Sparrow, Shooter Literary Magazine, Kissing Dynamite, Bending Genres, Feral, Quartet and elsewhere.