I am in an interview, in a conference room, stuck in French When the only sentence I know by heart is Est-ce que c’est Possible de caresser votre chien? That is a wild thing That happened and I am recalling this absurdity to you When you say, I notice the sun is in your eye so let’s move.
You’ve said the similar generous thing before about hamsters And their wheels and how it’s hard to get them to stop moving.
Outside it’s a setting sun and the air is insect-noisy and When you tell me about your father growing wild blueberries, I know I love him and it is really something to love a man’s father. Did you know? We’ll all be eating live insects again Just like early modern humans in ten years’ time. We walk, and I hear, as if from childhood, the silence beyond Millions of fluffing Fall field crickets. It is nightfall in October And I love to be brought back by you To the sound of the beginning of things.
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Alma Peek is from San Antonio, Texas. She is overeducated, to the point of foolishness. One of the highlights of her career came in 2015 when she taught a research methods class at CELSA Sorbonne in Paris, France (2014-2015). She is currently submitting two novels (Camp and Through the Green) and a poetry collection (Wild Thing). In 2025, her poetry appeared in Frontier Poetry, Stirring: A Literary Collection, and she has two poems forthcoming (November 2025) in Eunoia Review. She is the founder of @SYLVdesigns, LLC, a jewelry design brand. Her IG: @_almapeek_
