22 Mar Such a Stranger by Gunilla Theander Kester
street gleams with promise
like a luxury liner all lit up.
An unanchored buoy
divides mist.
Dusk bleeds into night, drips
slowly in a dark space the way
rain grips leaf and stone
before seeping into the dry ground.
Your voice echoes in that room.
How can I visit
when your doorbell is broken?
For a sense of self, I cling to lack
and feed on absence. I was asleep
the night you died. Now I wake up
every morning making sure what’s
missing is still here.
About the Poet
Swedish-born Gunilla Theander Kester is the award-winning author and co-author of seven books, including her most recent collection of poems Hold Me Still to be published in July by Main Street Rag Publishing Company. Her earlier publications include If I Were More Like Myself (The Writer’s Den, 2015), and two poetry chapbooks, Mysteries I-XXIII (2011) and Time of Sand and Teeth (2009) published by Finishing Line Press.
A Fulbright Scholar, she authored a study entitled Writing the Subject: Bildung and the African American Text (New York: Peter Lang, 1995, 2nd ed. 1997), and has published many articles in academic journals and anthologies. She was co-editor of The Empty Chair: Love and Loss in the Wake of Flight 3407 (2010), and The Still Empty Chair: More Writings Inspired by Flight 3407 (2011). She has also published numerous poems in Swedish anthologies and magazines, including Bonniers Litterära Magasin, Sweden’s most prestigious literary magazine.
Her current projects include contributions to Consequence Forum, work on another collection of poetry, and a memoir entitled Streetness Speaks. An accomplished classical guitarist, Gunilla often performs and has taught classical guitar at The Amherst School of Music.
This poem originally appeared in San Pedro River Review, Vol. 18, No. 1 published in the Spring of 2026.
Related Event
-
- Gunilla Theander Kester will read from her forthcoming collection Hold Me Still (Main Street Rag Publishing Company) at 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 16th, at Congregation Shir Shalom, 2660 Sheridan Drive, Williamsville, NY. The event is free and open to the public.
The Poem of the Week feature is curated by literary legacy awardee R.D. Pohl.