2024, Ohio River Valley Literature, poetry, Poetry Month 2024, river life, spring, the no-scape, waterfront, Working Class Literature

Untitled Series 1 (2024) 7-8

7.

an unexpected Sunday: no ambition for chores
but instead: a family lunch, a bit of shopping, cooking shows, moving books,

telling the Vietnamese lady next door
over my dogs barking

/ no, I won’t interrupt my dinner to do yardwork /

the scent of burning plastic, the sounds of lawnmowers an incense, a song

8.

the wharf is infected with waiting

we fake ambivalence over rumors
of falling river levels

watching the water for signs
under an eclipsing sun

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2024, Ohio River Valley Literature, poetry, Poetry Month 2024, river life, the no-scape, Working Class Literature

Untitled Series 1 (2024), 6

6.

// no word from the blue heron //

[note from translator:

the complexities incumbent on inter-species communication makes precise meaning a challenge]

// consult a watchman or wizard – ask the fire troll – he has tricks up his sleeves//

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2024, Ohio River Valley Literature, poetry, Poetry Month 2024, river life, spring, the no-scape, waterfront, Working Class Literature

Untitled Series 1 (2024), 5

5.

what we have then
this memory machine
splash paint and pray
for receeding water
as driftwood
and other forgotten continents
swim by, southbound

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