Tuesday Poem

Late August

cloud shreds
skid across
sandstone cliff face
dimmed red
to red
in an invisible rain
. . .
mosquito
becoming
language
. . .
scratched-off
scratch-off ticket
moldering in
a mound of
whacked
dandelions
. . .
to walk
a word
from one
weather
into another
. . .
on the window screen
a patch of beetles
peristaltic under
porch light
.

by Joseph Massey

Joseph Massey is the author of Areas of Fog (Shearsman Books, 2009), At the Point (Shearsman Books, 2011), To Keep Time (Omnidawn, 2014) and Illocality (Wave Books, forthcoming in 2015). He lives in the Pioneer Valley of Massachusetts.