2026, Day Book, Ohio River Valley Lit, the no-scape

T-Minus / Double-Edged Prayer

T-Minus

The morning after the storm
and the rocket launch, the first
I watched since 1986,
I’m drinking coffee and making plans
to roll on home down I-64.

There is always one more
countdown clock, always
another round of system checks
and then, when the time is right,
go.

Double-Edged Prayer

the grass grew in my absence
and still I have to service the mower:
new plug, new air filter,
the double-edged prayer
that pulling the cord will
and will not start the mower
and the summer will come, strangle
the house in tall grass and native weeds
terrifying the neighbors who walk their dogs
in front of my house on the same sidewalk
where the guy next door sells
his widower father’s prescription pain pills

[Daybook 2026 // Spring 4.2-4.3.26

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Mick Parsons
Mick Parsons

Poet. Essayist. Fictioner. Steamboat fireman. Bit of a grackle.

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2022, Ohio River Valley Lit, poetry, river life, the no-scape, waterfront, winter, work

The turn out of McAlpine Lock

Ice clings to the bottom of the paddlewheel.
It is a balmy 32 degrees 2 days after the first arctic blast of winter.
A light show falls on the wharf at almost 8:30 pm,
the quiet interrupted by tug boat traffic northbound
out of the turn

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