May 13, 2009 / Creative Writing
I watched Rebel Without a Cause on TV late one college night when I learned …
That field behind the barn
across the road,
how it once perfected your desires
in summer sun . . .
To sit in that grass right now,
would you offer up a poem?
Let the eyes of orioles fund you—
let the wind publish you on leaves?
All right, draw one more sip
of your mint julep,
and better make it a good one,
because what if tonight
someone sneaks into your office,
swallows your celebrated ink pens,
and stuffs the jar
with the barbed quills of a dead porcupine?
Daniel Bowman Jr.
Daniel Bowman Jr.’s work has appeared in the Adirondack Review, American Poetry Journal, Bitter Oleander, Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, Istanbul Literary Review, Main Street Rag, Midwest Quarterly, Pyrta, Redactions: Poetry & Poetics, Rio Grande Review, Seneca Review, and others. A native of upstate New York, he now lives in Indiana where he teaches English at Taylor University.