Rolling Hills

By Erick Phillips Garske

For Svitlana

Traveling
through the rolling
emerald hills of Santa Barbara
the landscape has the same
contours as the hills in Ukraine

the same rolling contours
lured the Danes
from Europe to Solvang.

She's safe in California on the
opposite
face of the earth
from Ukraine
like a turned cheek
unblemished
unlike the scorched earth
defacing the gentle hills
of her homeland.

****

Erick Phillips Garske, retired software engineer and now focuses on composing poetry and prose. He is the son of Korean War Veteran, Allan Winfield Garske who served in the Airforce, and at 91 years of age resides in the West Los Angeles Veterans Home. Garske self-published his first chapbook, "Terms and Conditions of Endearment", in 2022. He was one of five Pushcart nominees submitted by the editor of the Anaheim Poetry Review.