Wabash
Farm kids sleep
in truck beds,
wake and know
they’re home
by the feel of ruts
in the road,
the turn
of the river,
familiar.
Here
we know
what to do
to get home.
We duck
through branches
we’ve ducked
through before
and paddle toward
the White Bridge.
The heron returns
when we’ve passed.
Her wings,
an arrow, point
between trusses,
a threshold between
town and country.
Mary Butler is a poet and medical writer in Minneapolis who writes surgical technique manuals for spine surgeons, and is working on a collection of poetry that unites regular life with the mysteries of the sciences. She was recently selected for the 2008 Tom Collins House emerging writer’s residency by the Fellowship of Australian Writers in Perth, Western Australia. Her work has appeared in Project for a New Mythology and is forthcoming in Confluence; Cherry Blossom Review; Rock, Paper, Scissors; and on PrairiePoetry.org.