Bruised Forest — Blackbird Archive

← v16n1, Spring 2017

Among evergreens newlyweds

wander, sweet william

and maidenhair at their feet.

You are alone.

You are always alone.

Friends’ homes are “Daddy!”

and the drumroll of tiny feet,

yours your arthritic cat’s limp

and the AC’s hum.

Couples haunt you—

at the Strand, on the 1 train,

at eggnog jams, on this trail in Maine.

The bruised forest drips red leaves.

Kingbirds stud the ridgepole. The stream

is twelve thousand translucent trout.

You are alone. And no one is coming to save you.

solitude love nature place

Dana Crum

Dana Crum is the author of the poetry chapbook Good Friday 2000 (Q Avenue Press, 2014), and is a Callaloo Fellow. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Plume Poetry Journal, Carve Magazine, African Voices, Innisfree Poetry Journal , and elsewhere. He was profiled by The Paris Review in 2013, and Chicago’s NPR affiliate WBEZ 91.5 FM broadcasted a dramatic reading of his short story, “My Heavenly Father,” as part of its Stories on Stage program in 2003. He won the Eva Jane Romaine Coombe Writer’s Residency at The Seven Hills School, residencies at the Vermont Studio Center and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and received a fellowship from Virginia Commonwealth University. Dana is the CEO of Prosewizard.com, which provides tutoring and writing coach services. Photo by Margarita Corporan