(Jachan Devol/Unsplash)

Is it a phantom
from some lost land
so long forgotten,
never quite gone—

some exiled spirit
whose wild night cry
startles the darkness
into reply?

We who are shorelings
start at that cry,
feel something in us
quiver with joy—

feel something in us
waken, take flight
into shadow lands.
Loon cry at night.

Published in the January 2024 issue: View Contents
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Tom Hansen’s poems appear in recent or forthcoming issues of the Midwest Quarterly, Notre Dame Review, New American Writing, Southern Poetry Review, and others. His book Falling to Earth was published by BOA Editions.

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