Oaken Dreams by Zinta Aistars

Having two homes, two languages, two shores,
both of which hold claim on my blood and oaken heart,
I am always missing one when on the opposite shore…

She dreams always of being a tree,
skin coarsening gradually into springy bark,

limbs bending into branches, fingers
sprouting tender buds of velvety and greening leaves,
soft, soft, covered with fine mossy hairs like skin,

no, bark, and uppermost branches

scraping sky, flirting with clouds,

tickling bird bellies, sprinkled with sun.
Only roots hanging aimlessly, searching

soil chunks and gravel bits, road dust,

fingering unmapped shorelines, crags of dirt,

knuckled fists of fertile earth, upturned plow lines,

clay clods like open palms, uncharted fields, horizon wide,

for the one gritty nutrient, acorn of oaken heart,

that one precious bit of sod that will grasp

these roots, know them, and relinquish

Home.

About the author

Zinta Aistars is the published author of three books in the Latvian language. She is an editor for LuxEsto, the Kalamazoo College alumni magazine, and contributing writer to Encore magazine in Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA, and has published poetry, travel essays, stories, and articles in the United States, Latvia, England, Sweden, Germany, and Australia. Her work also appears on several ezines—including Flashquake, The Redbridge Review, milk magazine, Word Riot, The Surface, Serene Light, River Walk Journal, Bobbing Around, The Moon, Burning Word, Insolent Rudder, coilMagazine, Poems Neiderngasse, QuietPoly Writers Magazine, The Paper, Poetry Life & Times, WriteSight, and others. She is a literary publicist with Zeenythe Communications.

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