The Idea of North
Jennifer van Alstyne
Connections are narrow up here where loneliness
Limits interpersonal communication.
What kind of being is attracted to such
Isolation?
The Eccentric, certainly, & the Writer—
Perhaps all those creative thinkers whose mind
Entertains more than glossed lips or
Vocal chords.
I have a phone line —two actually—
One wired & one which sends radio waves to towers,
That connects a small GPS chip to satellites
So I am never truly lost.
Still, your voice tethered on electric currents,
Tidal variations of digital sound complexity
(Love encoded & wrapped around my finger)
Keeps me.
Jennifer van Alstyne is a Peruvian-American poet and scholar. She has been published numerous journals including COG, Crack the Spine, ELKE, The Foundling Review, Paper Nautilus, The Yellow Chair Review, Stonecoast Review, and Whiskey Traveler. Her chapbook, Pelt, was a finalist for the Paper Nautilus Vella Chapbook Award and for The Comstock Writers Group Chapbook Contest. She holds an MFA from Naropa University where she was the Jack Kerouac Fellow and is currently a graduate fellow in English Literature and Cultural Studies at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.