Just down the trail I glimpsed the wild turkeys,
elusive as weepy revenants who perished
of broken hearts then waft in soft focus
through walled-up doorways: you hear the swish
of a skirt, a slippered footfall, no more.
The pond is shallow, filled with twigs and leaves.
Deer imprint their hooves into its banks,
cuneiform for days in laurel thickets,
nights searching the ice for open water,
each bam-bam of a gun. They learn to stand
perfectly still and like you do not speak of loss.
The trees lean inward. Clear sky promises frost.
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J. S. Absher’s second full-length book of poetry, Skating Rough Ground, was published in 2022 by Kelsay Press. His poems have won awards from the North Carolina Poetry Society, BYU Studies Quarterly, and the journal Dialogue; and have been nominated four times for the Pushcart Prize. He lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, with his wife Patti.
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