I must keep loading more photos

of alpine bogs on Wikipedia to substitute

for real travel. I have found the gathered

heather, drying after the scythe, to be naturally

deficient, despite their colors and texture

but the photographs….suffice? Yes. Someday,

I’ll skip stones from a seated position

on a much larger, flatter stone. I will cut my

fingernails and learn Gaelic, I will sing

as loudly as my lungs are able to project

(and many more things I cannot promise

I keep quiet to myself). I will dance and my partner

will possess two parallel and equivalent braids.

There will be a cold wind—the heather, here,

alive and well, shaking in its grasp. I will laugh

at a willow grouse. I will cite all my sources,

because my upbringing was strangely emphatic

when it came to academic honesty. Blooming,

in its final moments, the sun sets. Rays! Rays all over.

—Payton Cuddy

Payton Cuddy is a native of Bryn Mawr, PA. He is currently pursuing an undergraduate degree in English at Kenyon college.