Twillingate, 2

The trip would eventually end
in St. John’s, but if we’re being honest
the terminus was here

in the far north-east, this land
of bushes and sparse trees,
where we slant-rhymed the ocean
with hope and slow

and in the long hours of the evening
watched whales navigate the coastline,
those phantoms fading

deep into the night, until the two of us
lost count of the hours sheltered there,
shivering under gulls and guillemots,
still together, and alone

in the strange beauty of moss and rock,
the water’s whisper, enough,
enough.

Julian Day lives in Winnipeg, Canada. His work has recently appeared in Juniper and periodicities, and his debut chapbook will be published by Anstruther Press in early 2021.