Poetry

identity is a territory

by Olja Alvir

identity is a territory
ever striving to describe the sea
its roots in all the wrong places.

on this plateau I am not lost
though, i’m just a visitor 
traveling at the speed of causality

or a stranger, thank you
i’d like to keep it that way.
driftwood on this wasted mesa

maybe a cat that comes back after a year
carrying the what ifs of unwanted adulthood:
between con and artist.

i know that we can’t upend the earth and 
hold ourselves hostage among its crevices
but I can’t deny that I feel it too:

tectonic temptations, the
sweet, sweet calling of forever, 
of things decided and done.

there’s no place against home

Appeared in Issue Spring '22