- Gardened Man
so much depends on the red barrow’s grasp— a bleached rat’s jaw hung by a wire— a church key tied with a gray shoelace—
Christmas tinsel and rubber raspberry handlebar streamers discharged from a foraged tireless Schwinn— there is also the Saint
Christopher’s medallion he wore as a boy so he could walk alone to school, shield a toothache, ward away a storm—in the metal belly
of his barrow [flat rectangular frame, tumulus, castrated swine] when not filled with accumulating leaves he would layer throw
pillows fought from the free pile of a closing church rummage sale—gold and tasseled with a single large button in each pillow’s
puckered felt, each plushed side—atop he’d lay a cleaned G.I. Joe doll [End Page 570]
dan encarnacion has published work in Word Riot, Blue Mesa Review, and Eleven Eleven. He was a featured artist for Reconnaissance Magazine and is included in the anthology Reduce: A Collection of Writings from Educe Journal 2012.