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 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.