visiting my child who has become an adult

by Nicole Farmer

there’s no hot food or fresh cut flowers awaiting me, just the warmth of your flesh and your sleepy smile and all the coronavirus rules we broke to indulge in this moment like no other with my nose in your hair and that familiar smell of the oils and perfume only your head can make and my heart misses a beat and the world stands still from its constant spinning and I am content to be wherever you are standing in the marijuana haze drifting out the door of your apartment which I know must be yours because of the moldy croissants in a plastic box which you hastily threw out in your frantic cleaning to show me the beauty of the place you have designed and decorated with care to make a home for you and your sweetie and all I can do is look at your long delicate fingers, each like a butterfly wing, as you gesture for me to step inside.

Nicole Farmer dreamed of flying as a child, which led her to run away from home at the age of seven to join the circus as a trapeze artist. They kindly returned her to her home before nightfall. Nicole is a reading tutor and nature lover who has found her home in the Appalachian Mountains of Western North Carolina.

Previous post: A Spell to Ground

Next post: California

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Issue 28 – Spring 2023
Home
- Elizabeth Lutyens, Editor in Chief
  “It’s Only Human”
Interview
- Great Smokies Writing Program Coordinator Jennifer McGaha
  With Special Features Editor Janet Moore
  “What’s Next: Building on Firm Foundations”
Nonfiction
- Amy Jane Lynch
  “Walking the Barrel”
- Amanda Burns
  “Remembering Clare: A Love Story”
- Zoe Rhine
  “The Prankster’s Laughter Stone-Skips Across the Lake”
Fiction
- Billie Harper Buie
  “Refugees”
- Pam J. Hecht
  “The Lions”
Poetry
- Judith A. Davis
  “Stopping by a Farmstand on a Summer Afternoon”
- Karen Luke Jackson
  “Open Heart”
- Margaret Bishop
  “Dying to Be Born”
Craft Session
- Bruce Spang
  “Syntax as Style in Poetry:
  The Invisible Craft of an Artful Sentence in Poetry”
Reflection
- Zoe Newton
  “Selective Memory”
Archives
The Great Smokies Review

Elizabeth Lutyens, Editor-in-Chief, Founder
Janet Moore, Special Features Editor
Julie Abbott, Submissions Editor
Patrick Pickering, UNC Asheville Intern
Michael Mauney, Photographer

Jennifer McGaha, Great Smokies Writing Program Coordinator
Lilly Danzis, GSWP Administrative Assistant
Tracey Rizzo, Dean of Humanities, UNC Asheville

The Great Smokies Review is an online publication of The Great Smokies Writing Program, a joint effort of the UNC Asheville departments of Literature and Language, Creative Writing, and the Asheville Graduate Center.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
We accept student fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction submitted by faculty of the Great Smokies Writing Program and other UNC Asheville writing programs. Submitters will receive a guidelines checklist to complete.

© 2023 The Great Smokies Review

All rights reserved. This publication may be freely distributed only in its entirety and without modification, and only for private use. Excerpts may be reproduced and distributed only by permission, except in the case of quotations for use in reviews and interviews. The creative works published in The Great Smokies Review do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of its staff, The Great Smokies Writing Program, or the University of North Carolina Asheville.