Mini Vacation, July 2020

After some hesitation we keep our reservation at a lodge
along the shore of Lake Superior. Built in 1927,
cabin 11 sits across the footbridge over the creek.

The cabin leans so much we have to brace ourselves
not to slide in the shower, and we sleep upside-down
in our beds so the blood doesn’t rush to our heads.

At the lodge’s restaurant, a newly streamlined menu
means no Swedish pancakes, and we snake in a line
six feet apart waiting to order at the counter.

The lights on our bridge still come on as the sun goes down
while we’re playing cards. The stream still flows
its promised course.

While my family constructs little towers made of stone
I hike alone, following my feet through overgrown trails
leading into the state park.

Before we leave, my daughter writes a note
to herself on a rock, hides it along the stream’s bank,
plans to find it again next year.





“…from a little trip ‘up north’ as we call it in Minnesota.”











Micki Blenkush lives in St. Cloud, MN and works as a social worker. She was selected as a 2017-2018 fellow in poetry for the Loft Literary Center’s Mentor Series program and is a 2015 & 2019 recipient of grants awarded through the Central MN Arts Board. Her book, Now We Will Speak in Flowers, is forthcoming with Blue Light Press summer of 2020. Micki’s writing has recently appeared in Typishly, Cagibi, and Crab Creek Review. www.mickiblenkush.com

See more of her work in 8.3 and 8.3 again