Abscond
as if it would rain on a day of ninety degrees
before sunrise, as if you and I woke
before that dawn and turned from each other
caring nothing for birdsong and hope;
and only our old angers simmering, called out
nevermore by crows and tomorrow by mourning
doves, old spinsters, left rattling the empty trees
*
A NH car dealer is giving away an AK-15 assault rifle with each sale
Pontiac or Jeep. Do they even make Oldsmobiles
any more? It doesn’t seem right to put a gun
in a Volvo station wagon. Or even a Dodge
Caravan. Soccer Mom cars. No, it must be the Dads
want these. A Durango, a Maverick, a Thunderbird.
Or perhaps it’s better with an unmarked car. No license
plate. Hard to trace. When he pulls off the road
at what he didn’t know was his destination. Leans into
the viewfinder and lets loose.
*
Pediatrician Kelley White has worked in inner-city Philadelphia and rural New Hampshire. Her poems have appeared in Exquisite Corpse, Rattle and JAMA. Her most recent chapbook is A Field Guide to Northern Tattoos (Main Street Rag Press.) She received a 2008 Pennsylvania Council on the Arts grant and is currently Poet in Residence at Drexel University College of Medicine. Her newest collection, NO.HOPE STREET has just been published by Kelsay Books.
