by Jesse DeLong<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Driving along the mountain\u2019s edge, I see, up ahead, the city, its lights like the grid of a control
\npanel navigating a pilot home, & I remember when the bypass didn\u2019t exist & I used to be in the
\nheart of it always<\/p>\n
Said of we,
\nafter splitting, what
\nburns bright must be so,
\nwhat is of the earth is always
\nto approach an end, &
\nbeing too much
\nof the mud
\nwe could not know
\nmuch about gods, or love, but
\nI think
\nthe interstate is
\na big, grey god
\nwe rode, one which
\nunloads at the edges of
\nthe city
\nchicken shit, light bulbs,
\ngloves with which
\nwe purge the flecks
\nof last night\u2019s spit-up
\nmeatballs, & if,
\non some night when
\nI close up
\nthe windows so
\nthat I can say at least
\nat least, at least,
\nthe cigarette smoke
\nwill stay with me,
\nI beg to feel, no,
\nto fall down
\na hill &, up ahead
\nwhere I can almost
\nreach, the city lights
\nare not an angel shattered
\nonto earth, the earth is
\nnot a sky, but only
\nwants to get there, or
\nbe pushed around
\nby gravity\u2014Whether or not
\nthe ones I
\nloved are what
\nI\u2019d hoped for & who
\nthey\u2019d claimed to be.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Jesse DeLong works as Assistant Director of Creative Writing at Louisiana State University. His poetry book, The Amateur Scientist’s Notebook<\/em>, was published by Baobab Press. Other work has appeared in Colorado Review, Mid-American Review, American Letters and Commentary, Indiana Review, Painted Bride Quarterly<\/em>, and Typo<\/em>, as well as the anthologies Best New Poets 2011<\/em> and Feast: Poetry and Recipes for a Full Seating at Dinner<\/em>. His chapbooks, Tearings, and Other Poems and<\/em> Earthwards<\/em>, were released by Curly Head Press.<\/p>\n
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