Drawn Upward into a Vague Melody of Harsh Threads*
or strings smoothed by horsetail
over hours, roughened by grind of canine
teeth gnashing first
chin polished wood
or breath sent to wrench muscles, to
shake all adjacent air like the molecules
themselves were in hysterics
or outside the nearly vacant church
a single soda machine releases the wrong can
for a man who already hangs his head
or a curb hopping compact car
or a crow crouched over caulking
misfired at aluminum hem
pecking ambitionless
a mixture collective synesthetes release
once, create and abandon to dreams.
*From the William Carlos Williams poem “Trees”
Zebulon Huset
Zebulon Huset is a public high school teacher, writer and photographer. He won the Gulf Stream 2020 Summer Poetry Contest and his writing has appeared in Best New Poets, Meridian, Atlanta Review, Smartish Pace, The Southern Review, Fence and others. He is an advocate of writing exercises and prompts and edits the prompt-based Sparked Literary Magazine.
