After Iowa flood:
New shades of brown.
First shade of brown: dead grass
Brunettes giving up
Lying prone in parks.
Second shade of brown:
Outdoor metals
Prisoners of iron oxide
And empty museums.
Dark second skins grew and spread
Into scar tissue.
Third shade of brown: the enemy itself-
The Iowa River.
Now the color of
Everything that wasn’t supposed to be there.
A tree lay on its side: roots unable to grapple
Earth aid.
Brown: the color of death.
Smell is alive and well.
So much dankness. Which sounds like stank.
Being green is too much work.
The sun, so uncaring.
Jennifer MacBain-Stephens is an emerging poet who was recently published in Issue #10 of Superstition Review and has poems forthcoming in Emerge Literary Journal , Red Savina Review, Foliate Oak Literary Magazine and The Apeiron Review.
