One Poem by Hana S. Elysia

 

Follow These Directions When Lost 

 

Do not hurry, do not rest

Keep flying toward the mountains due west

On easy wings, on blackberry sun

And when you reach the rivers, you’ve only begun

 

Now glide the forests of evergreen bough

The locus bone of home you’ll know

It glows and shimmers the nearer you get

On body’s call, on spirit’s bet

 

Past braided fields of golden-wave wheat

That tickle and sway and encourage your feet

To steady your pace, but keep you going

While galloping winds stride beside your flowing

 

And as the smell of sweet respite drifts close

Like flowery, honey-milk, bluebell verbose

Come hover and choose a perch, my dear

For now you’ve arrived at the place called Here.

Hana S. Elysia has written stories about sisters with strange names, women bursting into flames, and zombies with a weird appetite. A professional dancer turned writer with a love for the eerie and ethereal, her work has appeared in Wow! Women on Writing, pacificREVIEW, Confluence, and elsewhere. She has won awards for fiction and nonfiction, and serves as an editor of Cleaver Magazine, where she enjoys reading multiple genres. More of her work can be found at hanaselysia.substack.com or on Instagram @hana.s.elysia.