I do my best, reverent with remedies,
warm hands, picture of a bear with cub.
I make up stories as if the perfect character
will cure your suffering. Driving at night,
headlights on the painted lines, I try to remember
signs from any deities, owl lifting from a shadow,
lamp in a stranger’s window. An approaching car,
a beast, something fallen from a star.
prayer, it might be called
Arlene Naganawa’s current work appears in the anthologies Transformations: Wood/Metal/Stone/Sundry and Birdbrains: A Lyrical Guide to Washington State Birds (Raven Chronicles Press),and Stills: An Anthology of Poems on Films (Ravenna Press). Her work appears in Broadkill Reviews, La Piccioletta Barca, Mom Egg Review, Thimble, Waxwing, West Trestle Review and others.