Category: poems

• Car Talk

  The neighbors trimmed their trees and piled the carcasses of catalpa and volunteer maple deep along the side of the street, an encroachment into the…

• Blue Laws

  It’s true: I know the aisles of my local Aldi better than I know the banks of the river three blocks from my house, the…

• Before the Deluge

  You’re not wrong, everything everywhere is coming undone, no bright side, no silver lining, nothing to point to on the horizon: there’s your ship, the…

• Yard Work

  It rained every day for a week and then the temperature soared past the century mark and the corn was sweating and the soybeans were…

• Flood Stage

  The day after is not so different, the sun comes up, the trees stand tall against the sky that may be blue or grey or…

• Rubicon

  We watch the night sky for signs of a change in the weather, the gods whisper, do you not know what’s coming? A seismic unease…

• Post Hoc

  In a year this bare patch of soil will be crabgrassed and creeper-vined, the first and the fastest to drop their roots into the rubbled…

• A Useful Skill in a Tangible Situation

  Late in the morning I take my knife to the field, cut the cabbages free from their umbilical roots, strip off the outer leaves, the…

• No Kings

  Shall we get our fair share of abuse today in this flyover town, my hands stained with ink and it’s pouring down rain, is a…

• Speed Bump

  One more morning in the company of backyard birds, my neighbor rolls by on his blue motorcart, his dog alongside, passing through remnants of last…