Alexis Vergalla has had poems appear in various journals including Diode, elimae and Anemone Sidecar. She earned her M.F.A. from the University of California, Riverside where she was Editor of CRATE magazine. Her chapbook Letters through Glass came out in 2009 on Finishing Line Press. She currently lives in Seattle, Washington where she volunteers for the Richard Hugo House, is a board member of the arts organization Heroes (www.heroeseverywhere.com) and is on staff for Poetry Northwest. Her blog can be found online at www.alexisv.wordpress.com.

My Defense

Despite distance you call me and when your voice cracks
I double over in shock.

As though stricken.

If it were true place your hand, palm open,
in front of your body. I will extend, palm down.
Like this we can touch.

I am stricken, doubled over.

If it were true, we could.