When on the Other Side

By Sandi K. Johnson

I would have left behind 

sweat drops like breadcrumbs, 

crisscross footsteps along country trails

and gutters, too fleshy for shallow feet,

bruised maps of land and households,

lathered in thick tongues as loved as my own.

Lavatory corners and church pews

would still echo my prayers,

dreams may travel beyond poems

while fables empty in shoreline’s palms.

Coconut oil fingerprints of christening

for my mother on mirrors and bedposts, 

as rice bowls with spicy sardines

smoke out signals of a buoyant family.

Garden beds enriched with heritage and worth

may only need decency of water and sunshine;

for nights that thirst for slumber, 

residue of my laughter would offer lullabies,

awaiting until morning’s raucous grace

who isn’t sheep to man or tradition.

Sandi K. Johnson

Naturalized U.S. citizen from Liberia. She is a cross-genre writer and English professor in Texas. Holds a BA & MA in English from Mt. Mary University and an MFA in Poetry from Carlow University. Published works: National Book Foundation, Solstice Literary Magazine, The Bayou Review, Watershed Journal, Presence: A Journal of Catholic Poetry, Northern Appalachia Review, and elsewhere. Awards: 2009 Solstice Institute for Diverse Voices Prize and the 2021 Stephen Dunn Poetry Prize. Forthcoming publications: Dubeloving Anthology for Immigrant Writers from Dublin, Ireland and Flip The Script Publishing for the Darling Nikki: An Anthology Series, Volume 2 coming out December 2026.