‘Before the Glittering Sea of California’ by Wes Lee

Yes I was drunk / but suddenly wide awake / Yes
I was wearing a short / skirt / Yes
I was walking alone at 3am / A shaky key
in the lock / Minutes between us
as he followed me home / Seconds
to test the power of oak /
Near misses / Escapes /
And I wonder if I will / meet some sticky
end? / An old woman down the line / a teenager
breaks in and / puts me in my place /
once and for all /
I got away /
Is there a price? / Is my fate waiting? /
In the homeless shelter
at 2am? / In the hospital bed / weak, paralysed /
unable to fend? /
A woman walks alone at night / A woman
hikes / Does not hike / Cannot be in the woods
alone / Can never
be in the woods alone /
Standing in the middle of the wilderness
feels like a subversive act /
Remember the woman who / hitch-hiked
across America? /
On the last stretch / before the glittering sea
of California /
a man was waiting on the path
with a hunting knife.

From issue #8: spring/summer 2019

About the Author
Wes Lee’s writing has appeared in The Stinging Fly, New Writing Scotland, The London Magazine, Poetry London and Poetry New Zealand. She has won a number of awards including the Short Fiction Prize and was a finalist in the Sarah Broom Poetry Prize 2018. From the UK, she now lives in New Zealand.