Daniel Hales

ALMOST STILL LIFE

A public hearing will be held on October 30th
on the removal of this tree.
The grass is brown beneath the bench.

The birches are done, the maple’s halfway.
Rain’s simple project has been all day.
The neighbor’s driveway hosts rivulets of weeds.

The pictures list at their corners.
There are pine needles, sugar maple rotors
in the hallway.

Upstairs is for evening, for pulling shades.
A neighbor can be a silhouette behind theirs,
a wave while backing out.

The red pick rests in the sound-hole
beneath the shaft of a cracked truss rod.
The ice cube trays have grown beards.

The condemned tree stands silhouetted
by afternoon’s neighbor. Tools hang from hooks,
but if they wait, it’s not for this.

Daniel Hales' poems have appeared in Conduit, Quarter After Eight, Slipstream, 42Opus, Bateau, and Cranky.