Explorer of Pentacles

Lifework
by Isabel J Wallace

You hid bespoke calluses and fed alarms
that heckled the sun until it rose up with you,
and it’s years in the making,
but your hands still shake with the fear
that they’re too rough to hold your future.

Rest, now.

You laid the foundation with force of will
and gave shelter to everything you love.
This warmth is security,
and it’s safe to speak its name here.
The well is full; the house will not fall.

Breathe out.

Isabel J Wallace (she/her) is a queer writer and surgical nurse working in the wilds of North Florida. The swamp has left her predisposed towards ghost stories and the certainty that something is always lurking just out of sight. She has been published in Malaise: a Horror Anthology, a collection of horror short stories by queer authors, as well as in Smitten: this is what love looks like, an anthology of poetry by women for women.