Wilderness

You call to me and I go.
I leave my compass; I know North.
I leave my rosary; my faith is in
your Aurora Borealis. I’ll follow
your light through the foothills.
The spines of leaves shiver, emerald
pools show me
the way. I pray. For you,
I’d catch a fish in my teeth.
I hear you howl from the mountain;
I crawl on hands and knees, sniffing
the air, feeling the quiver of the earth.

Kate Wylie is a writer living in St. Louis, Missouri. She graduated from Webster University in 2018 with a B.A. in English and is currently pursuing her M.F.A. in Creative Writing at the University of Missouri in St. Louis. When she isn’t writing, Kate is a softball coach at Webster Groves High School, devoted gamer-wife, and an avid Chicago sports fan.