Salutations

Dear bruised eye that opens,

Dear broken bone that heals,

Dear wrist scars that fade,

Dear pills vomited on floor,

Dear untied noose from a tree,

Dear empty street after midnight,

Dear country road without cars,

Dear ocean crashing upon rocks,

Dear cold morning at sunrise,

Dear light glinting off water,

Dear spray from a waterfall,

Dear rainbow with grey skies,

Dear moon between clouds,

Dear thunder on stormy night,

Dear thirty-seven hours of rain,

Dear muddy shoes on clean floor,

Dear coyote on ridge at sunset,

Dear black cat of good luck,

Dear sleep filled night,

Dear Imagination,

Dear Universe,

Dear Possibility.

______

Christopher Rose is originally from Seattle, Washington. His poems have appeared in Fjords Review, TAYO Literary Magazine, The Hawaii Review, Vinyl Poetry, FreezeRay, and others. He is a Cave Canem fellow and VONA alum, and is a 2019 recipient of an Oregon Literary Fellowship for Writers of Color. He currently teaches at Portland Community College in Portland, Oregon.