Limestone Magazine - Browse poetry authors by title

Today, we have 70 poems + 11 stories + 3 essays = 84 works by 43 authors

Coming Home by Nicholas Messenger

The name of a mountain, and now another name
of a mountain, and the name of a pass, and now another
distant mountain seen from the pass, and now the name
of a river, and the name of a valley with a river
with another name - our destination. And on the way, a rather
ugly outcrop with a name no-one remembers, so they come
up with a new one every time they pass it, never
quite the same, and a patch of bush with the name of a prominent
mountain tree, and a tramping hut named after someone
with a cheeky nickname. In the morning setting out
you have a steep descent called after a mediaeval instrument
of torture by those coming up, and a wind off the peaks
at your back, named, once again, for a barbaric practice, and about
a half a mile along, if that much, down the spur
a hump with a name, but it's pretty hard to pick.
It's more like a label looking for a place to give its name
to. And then in the river bed, the odd cascade that you refer
to in familiar terms, and a nameless stumble after them you come
to an opening in the trees where everyone exclaims
as if that was a name for something: "Almost home!"

Editorial Poetry Stories Essays Humus Grikes Clints Erratics Submission Privacy Contact us Shop Site map