Gunilla Theander Kester

The Secret of Night

PUBLISHED IN FOLIO 2026: VOL. 41.

To feel the lower
slopes reaching up

while going down, down
toward the sea tasting salt

as if the mountain couldn’t
make up its mind to rise
or sink, run or drown

we live here half flying
half floating, unclear

of how to rinse, who we
resemble, as uncertain

about top and bottom
as we are of our color
our history and our G-d.

𐫱𐫱𐫱

Swedish-born Gunilla Theander Kester is an award-winning poet and the author of If I Were More Like Myself (The Writer's Den, 2015). Her two poetry chapbooks: Mysteries I-XXIII (2011) and Time of Sand and Teeth (2009) were published by Finishing Line Press. She was co-editor with Gary Earl Ross of The Still Empty Chair: More Writings Inspired by Flight 3407 (2011) and The Empty Chair: Love and Loss in the Wake of Flight 3407 (2010). Dr. Kester has published many poems in Swedish anthologies and magazines, including Bonniers Litterära Magasin. Her work has or will be published in On the Seawall, Cider Press, The American Journal of Poetry, Pendemics, and Atlanta Review. She lives near Buffalo, NY where she teaches classical guitar.