"Sketch in Northwest Arkansas" by Nathan Parker

a stretch of fruit-strewn shade
its vinegary yawn and meandering bones
quick to make the blond
with the apple between her mattress
essay this is not a good place to make love
and I don't think I will
the old red truck putts phlegm
and past the yellow hill stops
for grandchildren
swim through cramps and pray:
Skim Milk make our legs light and our eardrums tough
thank you for this dawn
on the dock
assorted donuts
grandma's black coffee and spare nose plugs
she lets a wolf spider
onto her hand swat it with a flip-floptry an Indian yodel of course
my voice cracks
deer are dead
scourge of the lyme tick
the orange specter
the bad pastor who poisoned the saltblocks
melancholy laughter now from the mosquito lamp
we are sunburnt and better looking

Nathan Parker's first book, The Locust Diagrams, is just out from Noemi Press. He lives with his wife and three children in Northport, Alabama, and teaches English at the University of Alabama.