(Photo credit: Rivet Head)
“Torrent” appeared in Morel Magazine in 2017. After Morel went out of print, the poem reappeared in Derelict Lit in 2019. “Torrent” is in my first book, Of Fat Dogs & Amorous Insects.
Torrent
November woods rebound with a quiet ease, fathers
and sons dress and cuff those draped, pointed bucks
Shoulders that first learned to be lean turning rivets
and sockets can shoulder the kick from a long gun
On the break room wall is an art deco colliery print:
swarthy stacks, helmet, pick axe backed in amber
In the midtown museum the great four walled mural
features men such as these: shift clockers
They hear the whistle; the time card clicks; they wait
on a buck; they know their work.
The torrent in the blood, that lacquer of sweat, the sting
of liquor, that ache in the back, it cannot last.
-Jeremy Nathan Marks