Lafayette Wattles

SPRING

I remember when spring was cut
grass open window linger in bed
sunny side runny
soak it all up with toast
couldn't get enough,
when buzz was the world
chirp-chirp pushing through soil,
when school days were daydreams
one faraway mower
dog holler dog holler back
it's here it's here time to get out
to run to go to move to be,
when on the way home
was off the path in the woods
little bent stream
lizard tongue-flash newness,
when after school was quick
change aluminum thunk
out of the park head first sliding home,
when evenings were bottles spinning truth
or dare closet kisses,
when night was downstairs
laughter and porch swing
hear it in the bedroom romance,
when the not light faded
and the moon left the sky
sooner and sooner
there'd be a new day.

A former high school teacher and graduate of Spalding University's MFA program, Lafayette once worked as a PA on a low-budget movie and had the good fortune of playing Amanda Plummer's dead husband in a scene that was eventually scrapped (which pretty much sums up his career as an actor). Lafayette's poetry has most recently appeared or is forthcoming in Underground Voices, FRIGG, Mannequin Envy, Thick With Conviction, and The Centrifugal Eye, among others, and his photography has appeared or is forthcoming as cover art in Blood Lotus, Carve, and Thick With Conviction.