Gary McDowell
2024 Michelle Boisseau Prize Finalist
—
THOUGHTS AS I SPIN MY WEDDING RING AROUND MY FINGER
Just beyond the mouth of the river
where silt shifts to krill, a pod of orcas
drift through. No, that’s not right,
that’s not what I saw. Just beyond
the treeline a pair of antlers over ten
feet tall, a moose, no, two moose
and a calf, split the reeds toward
the lake’s shore. No, that’s not it
either; I’ve never seen that. I have
seen, though, a school of tarpon
breach the Gulf’s surface, their
iridescent scales beneath the sun
like aluminum foil over a Fourth
of July fruit platter. Take it from me,
please, my longing. The difference
between sentiment and sentimentality
is half of everything I’ll ever own. Just
outside my window is a hollow stump.
Last spring a beehive formed deep
in its cavity. Faces here are transparent.
The heart too. The emptiness I hold
is universal, a condition with no cure.
Gary McDowell is the author/editor of seven books, most recently Aflame (White Pine Press, 2020), winner of the 2019 White Pine Press Poetry Prize. His poems and essays have appeared in dozens of literary magazines, including The American Poetry Review, The Nation, Ploughshares, Poetry Northwest, and West Branch. He is Professor of English at Belmont University in Nashville, TN, where he lives with his family.
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