The Glacier
Issue Three
Winter 2024

Maternal Bond

Never ran  
                 away from home

but should have—
                 Through the gate
 
without a backward glance
                 Our relationship best

through phone lines
                 strung and buried

across two countries
                 Now the distance

immeasurable, permanent
                 Never closer

Private Earthquake, Asheville, 2007

Safe to say
it isn’t safe
in this world
earth’s plates 
shift unexpected
in slip-strike  
a hint of crevasse
quivering
beneath the surface
like the conversation
at an inn ringed 
by the Blue Ridge
between a beautiful
couple during dinner,
locals on an overnight
getaway from three
small children when
the wife learns
new information
about her husband’s
past, astonishing to see
the fissure creeping 
across her landscape, 
her mouth’s surprise
opening to a cave 
of questions
about what else keeps 
silent in the dark
It was before your time,
he dismisses
with a wave of his hand

Kelly Cressio-Moeller is a poet and visual artist. Her poems have been nominated for Pushcart Prizes, Best New Poets, and Best of the Net, and have appeared widely in journals and at literary websites including Gargoyle, North American Review, Poet Lore, Salamander, THRUSH Poetry Journal, Valparaiso Poetry Review, Water~Stone Review, and ZYZZYVA, among others. She lives, writes, and paints in the Bay Area. Shade of Blue Trees from Two Sylvias Press (Finalist for the Wilder Prize) is her first poetry collection. Visit her website at www.kellycressiomoeller.com

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