photo: ralph murre
FADE TO
BLACK
by
Linda Back McKay
As
clotted clouds
crowd
the sky
dry
grass rasps
against
fence posts.
The
creek is scoured
with
rocks.
How
they hold
themselves
fiercely
against
landscaped
yards
where
shards
of daisies
stay
innocent,
where
summer
air
sluices with
the
sibilance of
grasshoppers,
katydids
and peepers.
All
the world
must
die. Only
rocks
remain
unscathed
by human
folly
until
an
unseen hand
brings
down
the
window shade.
~
first published in The Next Best Thing (Nodin
Press)
