Diego Isaias Hernández Méndez, Convertiendse en Characoteles / Sorcerers Changing into Their Animal Forms (detail), 2013, oil on canvas. Arte Maya Tz’utujil Collection.
If you are traveling with a live child
forget canyons,
_ _monuments
they are all genitalia anyway
which is why fathers
always take pictures
and wouldn’t Freud have a cigar
day with that
but no one is allowed
to smoke anymore
_ _especially
after sex
because it kills
the feng shui
of the moment
and what is traveling
besides moments
_ _where we are
where we are not meant to be
which explains
_ _the pictures
the desire
to say to anyone
who will listen
I was here.
Betsy Johnson-Miller is a poet, pastor, and author of a young-adult novel series. Her work has appeared in The Seattle Review, AGNI, Ascent, The Chiron Review, and elsewhere. (updated 6/2010)