Joel Fry
DOWN HERE IN ALABAMA
An abandoned car
sits on the side of the road
in 1957. It's Walter's,
but he listens to the moon ascend
showers in India.
The late drum begins it's beating.
Cities, shanties, dirt lots,
miles of corn in Elkmont
depart as sand under the foot
of the stratosphere.
Headlights bead
around twilight everyday.
They come down from the Cumberlands
with pine in their bulbs.
And tomorrow,
this land will be turned by rust,
by a machine that hitches its own mule,
pinning him between cattle prods.
It will be too late to sow seed then.
The sky will have stopped.
Location: Athens, Alabama Email: fryjoel@auburn.edu Publications: Melic Review, etc.
