Somewhere A Messenger
the wind / the exaggerating
trees usually
reliable / everything else
seems dishonest / your
thoughts /
your lips / these artifacts
you haul around / the look
in your eyes
not unlike the uncertainty
behind these open bulkhead
doors /
Inverses / A Pastoral
you see white caps dress
the river / the river undress
the white caps / the birds
reclaim here when it rains
/ a deranged oboe loudest /
but you’re put into motion
from falling and stilled by
the thought of crawling / you
better understand metaphor
one sentimental song at a time
/ your place in the world less
Kevin McLellan is the author of Hemispheres (Fact-Simile Editions, forthcoming), [box] (Letter [r] Press, 2016), Tributary (Barrow Street, 2015), and Round Trip (Seven Kitchens, 2010). He won the 2015 Third Coast Poetry Prize and Gival Press’ 2016 Oscar Wilde Award, and his poems have appeared in several journals including: American Letters & Commentary, Colorado Review, Crazyhorse, Kenyon Review, Sonora Review, West Branch, Western Humanities Review, and Witness. Kevin lives in Cambridge MA.