by Jennifer Rodrigues
Oncoming
Rocks
hurled against the pane of night.
Hail?
Rain?
Maybe bullets.
The saplings wait
inside the front porch
in plastic buckets, black and brown.
Their chance to root
may never come.
Am I dreaming?
We lie in bed.
An icy mortar drums at the roof.
I’m certain the house is falling
around us.
The floorboards creak
at will.
We have forsaken nature,
but for whose sake?
The season is lost.
Time has taken back
what it said.
Regret is not enough,
it folds.
It will not last the night.
The mountain retreats from the nor’easter.
The yellow moon lights what it can.
This grass might be snow.
Ryan Tracy’s poetry and fiction have appeared in various journals including Pank (2019 Pushcart Prize nomination for fiction), The Hyacinth Review, Chronogram, The New Engagement, K.G.B., The Gay and Lesbian Review, California Quarterly, and Calliope. Essays and criticism have appeared in The American Reader, The New York Press, and The Brooklyn Rail. Ryan is currently Visiting Assistant Professor of English at Knox College in Galesburg, IL. His first collection of poems, Tender Bottoms (Auntie Press), was released in 2022. Twitter: @RyanTracyWorld Instagram: @littlejeanjacques.
Jennifer Rodrigues currently lives on the sacred Powhatan land of Fairfax, VA. She is trained as a certified yoga therapist & trauma informed yoga teacher, is a queer military spouse, mom, & neurodivergent superhuman. She has been featured in many lovely literary journals & anthologies, & has been nominated for Best of the Net with her photography. Find her on Insta @gmoneyfunklove.