Foreign River
Indifferent swans float static,
as I cross another bridge
in an unnamed Belgian hamlet.
Stones from a different age,
piled by long-dead laborers.
I arc forward, pushing days
into weeks. Why must
I struggle to claim
a place amongst bodies
in this foreign town?
In France, police in flak vests
patrol the square. Their dense bulks
engulf plastic barricades.
Belgium is about nuns
and death. Cloistered women,
hidden in asylums for the poor.
I am a continuous tourist,
staring down the barrel
of an unknown road
that always blinks first.
I have no choice
but to keep walking.
Leah Mueller’s work appears in Rattle, NonBinary Review, Brilliant Flash Fiction, Citron Review, The Spectacle, New Flash Fiction Review, Does It Have Pockets, Outlook Springs, Your Impossible Voice, etc. She has been nominated for Pushcart and Best of the Net. Leah appears in the 2022 edition of Best Small Fictions. Her fourteenth book, “Stealing Buddha” was published by Anxiety Press in 2024. Website: www.leahmueller.org.
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