As Good A Place As Any

Roger Pfingston

 

As good a place as any, here beneath               

the Bradford pear, though other trees                       

would do as well or better, their canopies       

a taller, wider stretch of shade, but they                

are farther out—maple, sycamore,                

 

the storm-riddled poplar—and he is thinking        

now is not the time for choices. Here               

is where he is and here is where he breaks       

his grip, disengaging the blade as he                

sinks to the ground, the small trunk

 

support enough to keep him upright,

one arm cradling the other, lungs

sucking at air thick with fumes and grass,

birds above like a goddamn Disney film,

his running wife a slow and lovely motion…

 


Roger Pfingston, who lives in Bloomington, Indiana, has poems in recent anthologies from Iowa Press: Say This of Horses and 75 Poems on Retirement. His two most recent chapbooks are Earthbound (Pudding House Publications, 2003) and Singing to the Garden (Parallel Press,2003).  His poems have recently appeared in The Pedestal Magazine, Mannequin Envy, kaleidowhirl, Poetry Midwest, The MacGuffin, The Ledge and The Innisfree Poetry Journal.

 

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