Poetry

life vests, samos

by  Kas Bernays
Life-vest, partially cropped so that only the straps are visible
Photo by soupstock / Stock.adobe.com

away from the white-knuckle waves
wisps of fluorescence haunt the undergrowth
orange bands like blistering shoreline sores

life vests peeled off by the numb fingers of those
who staggered here before the light broke open

six I find hidden in a thick thorn cocoon but one
has risen someone has slung it high from a powerline

its black straps gathering the sunbeams
like a lightning rod for grace made

a beacon beckoning to the next to come
whispering be not afraid I am with you


Kas Bernays is a writer and philosophy student based on the east coast of Scotland. She has worked as a volunteer supporting forcibly displaced people on the island of Samos, Greece, and in Calais, France. Her work focuses on ecological thinking but also touches arts, activism, and refuge

Buy PRINT Issue  Subscribe TO WLT