October Wind: A Broken Sonnet

Shelli Rottschafer

How she kisses me now
that I’ve migrated seven states away. 
Her path glides over home waters while mine lead westward.
Once, I climbed a dune.  Each step upward, sank two backward
until I countered erosion’s power. 

At the moment I crescendo-ed to crest,
gusts caressed a blissed blessing.
My cap, sent skyward, then plummeted toward dune grass. 

Do I descend, to take one step forward
and two back? Or, sacrifice my hat to the lake
mermaid below?  Her waving seaweed locks
now contained while my braided wisps release.

Dune, meet Water, Great Lake, touch Horizon.
Arms stretched in prayer, may these lines enliven.

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Shelli Rottschafer
Shelli Rottschafer completed her doctorate from the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque (2005) in Latin American Contemporary Literature. From 2006 until 2023, Rottschafer taught at a small liberal arts college in Grand Rapids, Michigan as a Professor of Spanish. She also holds an MFA in Creative Writing with a concentration in Poetry and coursework in Nature Writing from Western Colorado University (2025).
Shelli’s home state is Michigan, yet her wanderlust turns her gaze toward her new querencia within the Mountain West where she lives, loves, and writes in Louisville, Colorado and El Prado, Nuevo México with her partner, photographer Daniel Combs and their Pyrenees-Border Collie Rescue.
Discover more of Shelli’s work at: www.shellirottschaferauthor.com