These hints and clues

might have led me
like a river if I had been able
to stitch them together:

Unpacking after
a drawn-out journey
to find nothing
was lost or left behind.

How little thought we gave
to cutting out everything
the last owner planted.

The stiff rope knot
stuck in my gut
most mornings.

The spider plant cuttings
that would not drop roots
into a jar of water.

Finding myself
holding onto prayer
like a kite string
beside the sea.

*

Lee Potts is founder and editor-in-chief of Stone Circle Review. A Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee, his work has appeared in The Night Heron Barks, Rust + Moth, Whale Road Review, UCity Review, Firmament, Moist Poetry Journal, and elsewhere. He is the author of two chapbooks – And Drought Will Follow (Frosted Fire Press, 2021) and We’ll Miss the Stars in the Morning (Bottlecap Press, 2024). He lives just outside of Philadelphia with his wife and daughter.