Torrent, Jeremy Nathan Marks
Jeremy Nathan Marks
Originally published in Morel Magazine
November woods rebound with a quiet ease, fathers
and sons dress and cuff those draped, pointed bucks
Shoulders that first learned to be lean turning rivets
and sockets can shoulder the kick from a long gun
On the break room wall is an art deco colliery print:
swarthy stacks, helmet, pick axe backed in amber
In the midtown museum the great four walled mural
features men such as these: shift clockers
They hear the whistle; the time card clicks; they wait
on a buck; they know their work.
The torrent in the blood, that lacquer of sweat, the sting
of liquor, that ache in the back, it cannot last.
Jeremy Nathan Marks is a London, Ontario-based writer. Recent poetry appears/is appearing in KYSO Flash, Cajun Mutt Press, Writers Resist, Unlikely Stories, Rat’s Ass Review, NRM Magazine, Poets Reading The News, Eunoia Review, The Conclusion Magazine, Bravearts, The Wire’s Dream, and Poetry Pacific. His short story, “Detroit 2099,” will be published in Stories of the Nature of Cities 2099 later this year. His website can be found here.
