Patricia J McLean

I’m at the edge of a cliff looking over,
looking over at the cracks in the rock on
the other side. I’m at the cliff edge
where time stretches, arcs back-forward,
ages stacked on ages bent, arched,
tilted, earth colors, life, death, beginning, end.

I’m at the edge of the cliff. I imagine I can see
the other side. I’m on the edge of the cliff,
I can’t see the bottom. Gravel grinds in my knees.
You didn’t think I was standing? I wouldn’t stand
at the edge of a crumbling cliff. Every minute
something falls in it. The rim crumbles in my fingers.
I’m on the edge and my voice, my cries, echo

on the canyon walls. I had no Idea I was so loud, so terrified,
so calm. My whispers can still be heard. People turn to look at me.
I’m not alone. You didn’t think I was alone at the edge of the cliff?
We’re all here at the edge. Some people lie on their backs looking up.
Others stand as if that weren’t dangerous, they
look back the way we’ve come, maybe they are thinking
about going home. Everyone is here.

Sand in my mouth, my teeth hiss. I slide forward.
I can see the bottom of the canyon, the river that would
take me away if I fell over the edge. I’m on my belly. You didn’t think
I was on my knees? No it’s worse than that. So much worse.
I am here with billions of people and I am on my belly, clinging
to the last bit of earth at the edge of the cliff.
Far below, the river is dry.

Patricia J McLean lives in Bend, Oregon. Her work has appeared in various publications including Windfall, The Lake, Panache, and Trillium. She and her spouse, Duane Poncy, have collaborated on three novels, Degrees of Freedom (2025), Ghosts of Saint-Pierre (2022), and Bartlett House(2007), and are working on their fourth novel. They established Rainy Nights Press in 2003, editing and publishing Raising Our Voices, an honored anthology introduced by Ursula K. Le Guin and Judith Barrington. The press published Navigation by Brittney Corrigan, Red Dust Rising by Marilyn Johnston, Like the Sun in Storm by Ralph Salisbury, and Eye of the Moon by Australian author Shelly Davidow. Beginning in 2012, they published Elohi Gadugi Journal, an online magazine of poetry, short stories, and non-fiction. They co-hosted the popular poetry series Readings at Milepost 5 (Portland, OR) for five years. Patricia’s website is poncy-mclean.net

This poem appears in Record of Dissent: Poems of Protest in an Authoritarian Age — Summer 2025, published by The Chaos Section Poetry Project. We’ll be featuring each poem from the collection individually in the weeks ahead. You can read the full collection or download a free PDF of the chapbook here.