Robyn Schelenz
Red State
In this sea of barns,
the sun is a tractor.
The clouds are dirty
and cleaning themselves against the earth.
Rain helps.
Haven’t we all felt
our little heads get tricked?
Rain or ray?
Don’t you know
every sneeze has its origins
94 million miles away
in a tornado of chaff and wheat
Sent down to us in little pigeon envelopes
that you have the audacity not to believe?
In this sea of barns,
the sun is a tractor.
The clouds are dirty
and cleaning themselves against the earth.
Rain helps.
Haven’t we all felt
our little heads get tricked?
Rain or ray?
Don’t you know
every sneeze has its origins
94 million miles away
in a tornado of chaff and wheat
Sent down to us in little pigeon envelopes
that you have the audacity not to believe?
Seventeen
Summer struck the road like a match
and lit its lamp.
No longer allowed to sleep
through progression of color
I park my car with its white paint
in the belly of a cicada.
Names dangle above me
in the skies,
All the flying animals
waiting like soldiers.
The swingset, the locomotive
the back 9 the sprung trap
the way a gold field hurts
how wheat wants you to be threshed with it
If people sing, I will sing.
If people praise, I will praise.
But I drove to a world
where nobody understands my language.
Summer struck the road like a match
and lit its lamp.
No longer allowed to sleep
through progression of color
I park my car with its white paint
in the belly of a cicada.
Names dangle above me
in the skies,
All the flying animals
waiting like soldiers.
The swingset, the locomotive
the back 9 the sprung trap
the way a gold field hurts
how wheat wants you to be threshed with it
If people sing, I will sing.
If people praise, I will praise.
But I drove to a world
where nobody understands my language.
--
Robyn Schelenz is from Birdsboro, Pennsylvania. Her work can be found at Gone Lawn, Maudlin House, Permafrost and Relegation Books' journal R&R, among other places. Her chapbook "Natural Healing," a collection of fables about our (un)natural attempts to heal the (un)natural world, is out from Bottlecap Press.
Robyn Schelenz is from Birdsboro, Pennsylvania. Her work can be found at Gone Lawn, Maudlin House, Permafrost and Relegation Books' journal R&R, among other places. Her chapbook "Natural Healing," a collection of fables about our (un)natural attempts to heal the (un)natural world, is out from Bottlecap Press.