Needing to Get Away - James Kangas

A girl in a pink blouse eating pasta looks

so happy you want to sit by her, want to

siphon off some of her artesian-like happiness.

The stone-brown cathedral points its three spires

skyward like the nose cones of rockets

set to launch themselves to God.

Here’s a pretty crowd at an outdoor café,

splashes of flowers, a castle, and mountains

(the brochure is crammed), a fortress

on a river, an overflowing market flaunting

peppers, tomatoes, and you turn

finally to a gleaming harbor.

You stare at that scene--all sun, all joy,

those strangers in sweaters smiling on the dock.

It’s as though all you had ever wanted

has cropped up in that photograph:                  

grand buildings beckon comfort;

one traveler’s gripsack murmurs its contentment.

The picture begins to take you in; you begin

to print through in each color, each object.

And now you are floating on that blue, steady water:

a buoy,

                    a boat,

                                        a swan.

Originally published in Adroit Journal #1, Spring 2011

James Kangas is a retired librarian living in Flint, Michigan. His work has appeared in Bulb Culture Collective, Free State Review, New York Quarterly, Tampa Review, Unbroken, et al. His chapbook, Breath of Eden (Sibling Rivalry Press), was published in 2019.