Erica Johnson

Frankly, I welcomed the book
as it took me and the sleepy
blanket far from the humdrum town.

Together we crunched on tacos,
before peeling back the skin
of a peach with our precarious pens.

How were we to know
that all we would find along the way
was a pack of stickers and
a twirly yellow bubble wand
“pause and pop” it sang to our delight!

Each bubble burst released
a fuzzy, buzzy bumblebee —
scattering across the sky
like champagne starlight.

We drank that sweet honey-nectar
till we grew wings of our own.

Giggling wind chimes — blanket, book, and I
tumbled down into the tickle-me-pink tulips
and wrapped ourselves together
in the woolly warmth of Mr. Rogers’ scarlet cardigan:
Did you know it’s alright to wonder?

Erica Johnson has spent her entire life navigating the different spaces of central Arkansas: from graduating out of the crowded halls of Mills University Studies High School to teaching in the much more rural Vilonia High School. Erica is a regular poet in online spaces such as EthicalELA and Teach Write. She spends her non-writing time taking in various anime and learning new games.

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.