Comfort is a couch piled too high with cousins

Elbows and giggles

Tickles and pokes;

Comfort is, of course, food:

Hot tomato soup

On a chilly day

with grilled cheese

Mom's bread, golden and buttered

Blackberry jam

Picked from the river;

It's the dusty books

Dad used to read

His learnings and aspirations

Maybe I’ll read them too,

Someday;

Comfort is the smell of home

Something I can’t actually smell

It’s an absence of smell,

Being the everyday;

It feels like a stack of quilts

Heavy

Hand-stitched

With love and nostalgia;

Comfort is knowing the darkness is coming,

but you won't be alone

And

You can have coffee again

LINDSY GLICK is a staff member at UAA, and works in the Office of Equity and Compliance. She moved to Alaska in 2021, and enjoys the many outdoor opportunities the state has to offer.