• Week 35 • Tristich •

The Foreigner

the hills I climbed
yesterday afternoon
grab at my calves today

while I pull tales from the ether
all the characters of my design
living, breathing life outside of me

together the sky and I lie in striated shadow
in leaf litter beneath beech, between
siesta and understanding

alive and present, I let
all things slide back
to where they belong

and know I would scour
the sun’s forests
for you, my home.

The tristich form is a form of poetry that can mean a strophe or stanza – or an entire poem – of three lines.