Issue 24

Spring 2021

First we are lost

Peter Grandbois

the yellow jackets buzz about the yard

more and more I find it difficult to go on

my son hit their nest with the lawnmower

days churn through patterns of heat and dust

he abandoned the mower in the sortie of stings

the long ache of night gives the illusion of movement

I brushed them from his skin as he ran inside

my head a slow cloud drifting across the sky

the yellow jackets buzz frantically

searching for their home—

I fear killing them I fear letting them be

what we think what we do what stings us

so much noise

when it is enough to hold on

we are the forest that shines

in rain

About the Author

Peter GrandboisPeter Grandbois is the author of eleven books, the most recent of which is The Three-Legged World (published by Etruscan Press as Triptych with books by poets James McCorkle and Robert Miltner, 2020). His poems, stories, and essays have appeared in over one hundred journals. His plays have been nominated for several New York Innovative Theatre Awards and have been performed in St. Louis, Columbus, Los Angeles, and New York. He is poetry editor at Boulevard magazine and teaches at Denison University in Ohio. You can find him at www.petergrandbois.com.

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