COCKSHUT
BY TYLER KLINE
n. the close of day; evening; twilight
Hour ghosts boil bark into cool water
for a town to rub on its burns.
Hour dogs pass to mountain shale
then back to hunter below a half-gone moon.
Hour the pastor’s hand becomes a bride
confessing to a diamond lost
and found in the parish boy’s boots.
Hour a fox crossing the porch
sounds not unlike a widow sweeping straw.
Hour grace is left playing with matches,
hour the sun drags out the moon
to stand against a tree and shoot.
Hour the chickens get their names,
the thistle their thorns. Hour a truck
drives like an ocean in peacetime,
hour the coyote bums a smoke ring
from the boy growing his father’s hands.
