The Nordic Hut
by Julia Dallaway | December 29, 2022
Leaving you, I longed
for one lone hut, red against the
vast grey sea. Longed to sink
my boots into the snow, to seek
to spread the net of my spirit.
To be more than a sister, a friend,
a partner, when that cold courage
blustered through me.
I have now
forgotten
your name—or is it that I cannot
speak it? At this icy outpost, I’ve been
struck again
by love, after years of
burying and burying my body.
On darkening backroads, I beat back the rain
with all the fervour of heartbreak.
Nothing here
seems quite as wide-ranging—
quite so treacherous or thrilling—
as the journeys now available to me
in dreams and in memory.∎
Words by Julia Dallaway. Art by Rachel Jung.