Field Work By Austin Holmes when we awoke in the morning we broke down camp and drove to the sandy two-track then opened the old gate held to the post by taut rusted wire as we passed along sagebrush taller than a bull’s spine we saw a calf head impaled on a juniper branch serving … Continue reading Field Work (Poem)

Night By Austin Holmes I come together again at night, I open my eyes, I wet them with this darkness full of dream. — Jaime Sabines, I Have Eyes to See at night the cownprint is silent water from the day’s rain fills its tenebrous depth and drinks the light of the moon in the … Continue reading Night (Poem)

Walking along the dry streambed
in late summer

I am not so accustomed
to such dense foliage here

yet those two dead cottonwoods
remain, consistent on the bank

side by side are these
twin shadows of lightning

Gila By Austin Holmes Heloderma suspectum Elusive monster I long to witness your beaded banded skin Bubbling like boiling mythical waters Venom-soaked tongue like a dusty mauve rose Perhaps I shall one day see you emerge From your red earth dwelling, deer mouse in mouth, And shall applaud you and my Boundless fortuity

A poem by Austin Holmes.