Night, Barges
Rent from DeepDyve- Night, Barges
We do not see what watches us from treesor from the front seats of abandoned cars.We do not see shadows cross the highway,pass the junction sign and disappearinto the dark endless fields rustling.
We look up and are amazed at the greatwheels of red-winged blackbirdscome back to us. Understand it was not always like this.We did not always slouchover our cups of coffee [End Page 27] in this diner mutteringto the gods of small certainties.Birds catch what they can from air.
Understand, this year too the universewill stretch her spine, drag with herthe intuition that mediatesthe body and the spirit. We are alreadyone star farther apart. Along the highway
No Trespassing signs, riddledwith shot … and here is where the concrete endsat the edge of the Mississippi. We do not botherwith guardrails. The river gleams. Everyboarded window and doorsays not here, not here…
We drag the river behind us. Raise your glassesfor every barge sliding by, each a black herdof horses swimming toward the damnever to return again. [End Page 28]
Dana Bisignani, a car enthusiast and collector of antique dictionaries, was born in the south suburbs of Chicago and raised at the intersection of city and prairie. She currently resides in Indiana, where she is working toward a PhD in poetics at Purdue University. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Poetry East and Blue Collar.
