In the Black Kitchen
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It begins early, arc crumbling over the yard with its salt bird baths.
Then you dream of the banister gleaming, your hand
from atop the stairs gripping a tiny casket. Heat gathers above the local graveyard
that dusts so resolutely the young men’s shoes with its flags.
This is where the shadows meet the white wall. Since
you were a boy you’ve moved unmolested right through them.
But you are never alone. You are never without the crumbs
your father scraped off your black toast. The whiter the appliance
the rounder its corners. The reflections on the floor are cut into many small pieces.
There’s nowhere to hide. He keeps looking in the window at you.

by David Dodd Lee, from Abrupt Rural, New Issues Poetry & Prose
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