if I see you again

By Kaecey McCormick

it will be our hallelujah time once more
and we’ll sing old hymns from the hilltops
with made-up words we learned from the towhees
when we were small and forever living

I’ll whisper the end of the love story I started
in 1993 and you can tell me about heaven
and the comet tails you rode back home
and whether the stars are overstated

you can show me where you hid my coral
lipstick and my baby soft perfume while
I show you my silver stretchmarks and the sun
darkened spots browning the backs of my hands

we’ll sneak into the kitchen and cook up
another lie and shout it to the wind which will
carry it with you to the stones on the hill
where the others lie in unpeaceful rest
awaiting your return

—

About Author

Kaecey McCormick is a writer living in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her poetry and prose have found homes in different places, including Pedestal Magazine, Pine Hills Review, Jabberwock Review, One Sentence Poems, On the Seawall, and Clockhouse as well as her chapbooks Sleeping with Demons (2023) and Pixelated Tears (2018). She served as poet laureate for the city of Cupertino, teaches poetry at The Writers Studio, and is a graduate Steinbeck Fellow at SJSU. When not writing, you can find Kaecey hiking up a mountain, painting, or reading a book. Connect with Kaecey on her website.