As Good A Place As Any
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.