LETTER FROM THE COUNTRY

 

My brother
what do I do now

with my impulse
to tie our shoes together

and launch them into the wire
the way I think

you think
sublime vistas are conjured

I prepare a curse
to cleanse personal nostalgias

I stand
a bullet on a fence post

to indicate arrival
calling later than usual

your home the last thing
I do not know

apologies
news of the truce

the road back struck
an ineffable silence

where our sympathies
have peace to make

our trails both
converge and run cold

Fred Schmalz is an artist and writer whose first poetry collection, Action in the Orchards, explores intimacy and loss via encounters with contemporary art. Recent collaborative multimedia works have been presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, and Grand Central Art Center in Santa Ana, California.

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