Kerfe Roig

1
Friends arrive in random order,
not really invited, yet braiding
themselves into your being until
they become knots that keep
the chaos from fraying your edges—
you reflect and are reflected,
an embellished outline containing
universes that the rest of the world
unsees—all that is your otherness
becomes connected as you bear
witness to each other’s lives

2
A friend is a river upon which
you can float when you are
too tired of swimming, a vessel
to hold your grief when you feel
overwhelmed by circumstances—
when all your paths are blocked
by walls and your skies sit heavy
and grey, a friend opens the door
and gives you space, becomes
a mirror that shows not your faults
but a way around your obstacles

3
A friend is a light in the dark—
no cliché ever held more truth

A resident of New York City, Kerfe Roig enjoys transforming words and images into something new. Her poetry and art have been featured online by Silver Birch Press, Feral, Pure Haiku, Zen Space, Visual Verse, Collaborature, and The Ekphrastic Review, and published in Ella@100,Incandescent Mind, The Raw Art Review, The Anthropocene Hymnal, and The Polaris Trilogy. Follow her explorations on her blogs, methodtwomadness.wordpress.com (which she does with her friend Nina) and kblog.blog.

This poem appeared in What We Hold On To: Poems of Coping, Connection, and Carrying On — Winter 2026, 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.