The Distance Between Us
Long before you move to Juneau,
we drifted from each other like glaciers.
The rate at which we talk,
it almost seems absurd to worry.
The rate at which the ice melts,
there is cause for alarm in Alaska.
Let’s meet up, like Mom wanted,
before Mendenhall vanishes.
Amid conifers, arctic lupine,
let’s forget our frigid interactions
before the sea around you rises,
turns to ink in the darkness
Jonathan Fletcher holds a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Columbia University School of the Arts. His work has been featured in numerous literary journals and magazines, and he has won or placed in various literary contests. A Pushcart Prize nominee, he won Northwestern University Press’s Drinking Gourd Chapbook Poetry Prize contest in 2023, for which he will have his debut chapbook, This is My Body, published in 2025. Currently, he serves as a Zoeglossia Fellow and lives in San Antonio, Texas.
