by Michael Canfield

Barbados is defined as the word stuck in her head
when she thought she was thinking about
something else.

Barbados is defined as the place she looked up
on Travelocity and then on Kayak and about which
she learned nothing.

Barbados is defined as that thing she banished
from her psyche for fear of cultural appropriation.
Barbados is defined as the word stuck in her head
still as she wakes the next morning, too early to rise,
too late to fall back asleep.

The word in the darkness,
the word against the silence,
the last and first word she knows.

Image by Mika Pukkila from Pixabay