Jeff Schiff

WHY THE CRICKET?

In the crow
     not yet crow black bird

In the red wings
     covering this Arkansas

In the evening
     yes

In the toad
     not toad tree frogs

In the ash
     and the grey birch wood

In the bark
     and the bark fading

In sluice water
     and in the shadows concealing

my sodden boots
     the Christ of spitshine

chuffs one line
     and then the next

Jeff Schiff is author of Anywhere in this Country (Mammoth Press), The Homily of Infinitude (Pennsylvania Review Press), The Rats of Patzcuaro (Poetry Link), Resources for Writing About Literature (HarperCollins), and Burro Heart (Mammoth Press). His work has appeared internationally in more than seventy periodicals, including Grand Street, The Ohio Review, Poet & Critic, The Louisville Review, Tendril, Pembroke Magazine, Carolina Review, Chicago Review, Hawaii Review, Southern Humanities Review, River City, Indiana Review, and The Southwest Review. He has taught at Columbia College Chicago since 1987.