my google maps location history
is a peony
close-petalled
identical circles layered:
home/work/home/work/home/work/home
and
the same kilometer of beach
on infinite loop
they say peonies need ants
to nibble through their seals
but it's spring
that pries open
my tight-balled days
to admit
cherry blossoms
on the way to work
and at the beach,
as my dog examines
and re-examines
each tide-tumbled stone with his soft black nose:
sunrise, mixing pink lemonade into waves
and sunset –
oystercatchers,
their long, papaya beaks
their morse-code cries
Bios
Zoe Dickinson
Zoe Dickinson is a poet and bookseller from Victoria, BC. She has been published in literary journals such as Existere, Prairie Fire, and Contemporary Verse 2. Her first chapbook, Public Transit, was published in 2015 by Leaf Press, and her second chapbook, intertidal: poems from the littoral zone, is the 2022 winner of the Raven Chapbook competition. She is a manager at Russell Books and the Artistic Director of the Planet Earth Poetry Reading Series. [provided in 2023]