Sean Patrick Hill

PARIS, KENTUCKY

 

 

Humidity here

 

    spent breath

 

   ten thousand cankered

  acres of corn

 

exhaling

        sibilant hiss

 

               worried down-

 

   wind over

slate-flat plains

 

late

               summer

       clouds

 

       the last

asters in rain

 

 

       Rust the cast-

iron leaves

 

  on the sink

trap traces

 

a thin silted

    bruise

 

              over the onion-

clogged sink    breathe

 

in    hold   notice

the gap

 

before the body

         lets go—

 

       a fracture

  factions

 

a silence

 

               bells

 

swell behind

 

 

Which ocean

breaks

          over-

 

head we can’t say

let alone

 

who

      aims to speak

across this muggy

 

   distance

to whom