The Only Explanation

by Tricia Knoll

In dawn’s light I see footprints retreating from my house in thin snowfall this November day. Boot size 12 at least.

In the Professor’s Explanation of Phenomena, page 32, at the end of his chapter on Disappearances, he describes the work of Feasties – those who stuff themselves with dreams, gobble so fast without regard to choking, that they suffuse their bodies with heat even unto their feet. He hypothesizes that they also nibble away the words aging people forget.

The Professor says they perform this service free of charge, but he could not say what benefit this was to the Feasties, only that they could not live without brainwaves.

About one thing he was right. Their footsteps melted by noon.

Tricia Knoll is a Vermont poet who welcomed her 8th and 9th collections of poem in early 2024: Wild Apples (Fernwood Press) about downsizing and moving 3,003 miles from Oregon to Vermont and The Unknown Daughter, 24 poems in varied voices about the monument to unknown daughters. Knoll is a Contributing Editor to Verse Virtual. Website: triciaknoll.com