by Jacqueline Coleman-Fried
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| Smoke billows as wildfires destroy a large part of the historic town of Lahaina. |
Associate with me—
an aquamarine ring gifted to me
on my seventh birthday. Years later,
a family trip to an island few could
name. Water off the island the same
color as my ring. Pelicans dive-bombing
for fish in the bay. On the path to dinner,
no electric light—stars flung on black.
Now tout le monde, and hurricanes like nuclear
bombs, know this island and every
paradise you ever loved. I want to resize
my ring and slip it on my finger, but
it will change nothing.
Jacqueline Coleman-Fried is a poet living in Tuckahoe, NY. Her work has appeared in The Orchards Poetry Journal, pacificREVIEW, Topical Poetry, Quartet Journal, and soon, Consequence and HerWords magazine.