ALEX GUARCO
Even Now, the Poplar
This lake at dawn like new glass
and the boys thrown beneath
singing still their hymns in
the gray water to a breach
of ankles. Let us sing some
small worth from the shackle,
show the skin of a neck as
the callow shape it's broke
from (not yours, not you,
for once), and we can watch
the birds in morning, see
them needle the caps
and tear their seams to the sky
for no reason or warning,
no hunger but the blur of reflex:
how easy jaws take to water.
Alex Guarco is the associate editor of The Adirondack Review. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Juked, DIALOGIST, and SOFTBLOW.