Solitary in Des Moines County
Early spring, a copper swallows
the outlines of clouds,
horizontal light plunges
amid boughs of splayed douglas fir
and engulfs its trunk.
Starlings chatter in trees above
flutter in and out of smoky heights
of hickories and cypresses, fen smells
of sodden forest, undergrowth
dulled black by runoff:
the waste that feeds the fern.
Primaveral
March at last wakes up
Like a lazy leopard,
glittering,
itching for motion,
blood-curdling,
and arching its back
before it strives over the winter.
John Hansen received a BA in English from the University of Iowa and an MA in English literature from Oklahoma State University. His work has appeared in The Summerset Review, Schuylkill Valley Journal, Litro Magazine, Wild Roof Journal, The Banyan Review, Drunk Monkeys, Midway Journal, Cathexis Northwest Press, and elsewhere. He has presented on a variety of topics at The Modern Language Association, The National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development, The Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC—Regional), The American Comparative Literature Association, The Midwest Conference on British Studies, The Symposium on Medieval and Renaissance Studies, and others. He is English faculty at Mohave Community College in Arizona. Read more at johnphansen.com.
