Wabash

Mary Butler

 

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.

 

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