kitty corner from the empty high school
dumb as a brick the house
deep as grass the glass
meters tagged all hollow
or shouldering squatters drops
slate and shakes rounds
of mortar sparrows chandeliering
plaster cracks trees heaving
the brick walk mice in the sectional
rain swells icing sills feral cats
pad someone’s vinyl collection
belts shoe xylophone yellow
penny saver swayback porch roof
gutters choke and hatch saplings
next door is empty and
next to that and next
year the mayor will
tear down 1000 I
grew up here someone says
Karen Schubert’s work appears in Best American Poetry blog, MiPOesias, quickly, Ohio Poetry Anthology, Conte, and others. Her third chapbook, I Left My Wings on a Chair, won the Wick Poetry Center chapbook contest and is forthcoming from Kent State Press in 2014.
Read poetry by Karen Schubert also appearing in Terrain.org Issue 25.
Photo credit: Patrick Henson via photopin cc
