Scotch tasting
/ Mallory Imler Powell
No one knows
that I am not here
that I am on
a Scottish isle
and it’s a rainy morning
and the sky
is the color
of wet concrete.
I’m waiting for a bus,
the blue peat smoke
lingers,
and then I leave
the beautiful hill
by the broad bay,
alone.
And here now a man
sings Highland blessings,
his words
coax out the spirit
of nostalgia—
it is the dialogue
of copper,
I become an island
of an island, I feel
the influence of the seas,
the gentle rise
of other places.
Mallory Imler Powell studied international
affairs and Spanish language and literature
at Transy