Chitra Ganesh, How to Assemble a Flying Car (detail), 2018, linocut on tan BFK Rives. Courtesy of the artist & Durham Press.
Afternoon 1
Storm coming, I can tell by our cat
heading under the bed—giving the slip, little coward,
and the smell—muted silver sizzle—
Boughs chase squirrels
before boom-box thunder,
woofers and tweeters perched in the western branches—
Cat eyes umlauts under my nightstand—
My family—the Colonel’s family—speak to each other
with thunder on our sleeves,
whiskers in our bellies—
heshetheywe
the body-still-warm pronoun—
When it comes, lightning’s dragon,
my daughter and I speak to each other raining hands.
Daneen Wardrop is the author of three poetry collections: The Odds of Being, Cyclorama, and Life as It, which received the 2017 Independent Publisher Book Award. A fourth collection, Silk Road, will appear later this year. She has also published three books of literary criticism, including Emily Dickinson and the Labor of Clothing (New Hampshire, 2009). She has received, among other honors, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and the Robert H. Winner Award from the Poetry Society of America. Her poetry has appeared in The Virginia Quarterly Review, AGNI, TriQuarterly, FIELD, The Antioch Review, Crazyhorse, Kenyon Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, North American Review and elsewhere. (updated 4/2018)