In Transit
After the second security check
My head heavy with tongues
of countries I barely touched,
words grinding their incomprehensible
urgency into my jaw
I chew on returning questions
Why I keep defying climate change
confined in an in-between space
too tight to swallow my doubts
or defend my reasons
I rip the teabag open
watch how the leaves surrender
wait until the last fragment lands
and I can read
what it all means
Hege Jakobsen Lepri is a Norwegian-Canadian translator and writer. She had her first story published in English in 2013 and that has since been her writing language. Though she's primarily a prose writer, her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in untethered, Prism International, Haiku journal, Under the Basho, Anti-Heroin Chic, Better than Starbucks, Watch your Head and Burning House Press. She has also been part of The Emerging Writers Reading Series in Toronto. You find her at www.hegeajlepri.ca