Aug31

When Trees Pop, by Helen Losse

by Rusty on August 31st, 2009 at 5:29 am
Two men stand, fists clenched,
inside a ring formed by other men.
The other men cheer the two men on,
while the man knocks another man down.
 
Nearby, at an over­pass, sev­eral boys
throw sand and shout the word queer
at cer­tain other boys.  Sev­eral women
stand shoul­der to shoul­der, seem­ingly calm.
But as they turn, one woman bites another
woman on her tongue.  Dusk then set­tles on
the right of way.  Tall ever­greens and deciduous
trees turn black.  A cool wind  rocks the bird house,
rus­tles tree branches, plays a tune on the treble
wind chimes.  Life is slow­ing from the rackets
of men:  noise from their cars, trucks,
their thrum­ming, black jackhammers.
The light of a full, orange moon meets the fog.
That night trees pop, a man dies by another
man’s hand, and sev­eral young girls shun
the bad girl to whom they must never speak.

Helen Losse is the author of Bet­ter With Friends, pub­lished by Rank Stranger Press in 2009, and the Poetry Edi­tor of The Dead Mule School of South­ern Lit­er­a­ture. Her recent poetry pub­li­ca­tions and accep­tances include The Wild Goose Poetry Review, Shape of a Box, Dis­tillery and Hob­ble Creek Review.  She has two chap­books, Gath­er­ing the Bro­ken Pieces, and Paper Snowflakes. Edu­cated at Mis­souri South­ern State and Wake For­est Uni­ver­si­ties, she lives in Winston-Salem, NC.