Echolocation and Negroni

Written By Josh Stewart

Echolocation

I remember time before the walls watched
us with pity in the interval between
casting our voices into this illusion

and the echo returning to confirm
that we’re lost. I’m afraid to ask
for directions when being with you

feels more like being alone,
the returning ripples growing weaker
each time we reach out for something

that isn’t a distorted ricochet
of what once was. It’s impossible to navigate
the silence and its meanings with senses

deprived like light groping
for a surface to touch so it can throw
a shadow that reminds it

what it loves about itself.

Negroni

  • 1 generous oz of sweet vermouth

  • 1 conservative oz of bitter aperitif

  • 1 oz gin

  • a dash of orange, ginger, and Angostura bitters

  • orange twist and maraschino cherries for garnish

The colours of fall leaves tickle
the tonsils—the beauty inherent

in tiredness. Shadows linger
and contort themselves like the last note

of a song. Time leans against the wind
and lets itself stagger, knowing

even its mortality is inescapable,
its bittersweet decay written in constellation.

Josh Stewart

Josh Stewart is an ESL instructor, martial artist, and writer. He has authored two poetry chapbooks, Temptation as a Technical Difficulty (Anstruther Press, 2015) and Invention of the Curveball (Cactus Press, 2008). His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Canadian Literature, Vallum, The New Quarterly, Grain, The Antigonish Review, Into The Void, Carousel, Prairie Fire, CV2, Existere, Clover & White, and others. His blog is called The Martial Poet.

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