SOMEWHERE NEAR DEFIANCE
BY JEFF GUNDY
$20.00. (email us for availability)

Just as a river finds inevitable kinship between remote hills and a distant sea, this book employs the prehensile reach of poetry to link local wisdom and distant war, to bind sacred callings and daily life. Defiance against what's wrong is devotion to what's right, and for Jeff Gundy the path between is a poetry bristling with connections. -- Kim Stafford, author of 100 Tricks Every Boy Can Do: How My Brother Disappeared

Interior Housekeeping

          The burning city of my sorrow… 
             --William Stafford

My sorrow is not a city, and not burning. It is Railroad Street 
in my town, so small it has only six houses, all facing

the tracks, three of them neat and clean, two in need 
of paint and shingles, one so poor that nobody remembers

how to open the door, how long ago the gas was turned off, 
what dwells and swells inside the dark refrigerator.

Maybe there’s an old man in the bedroom upstairs, 
drinking from the rusty sink tap, eating stale corn chips

and Oreos. His wife left a note, but it fell behind the stove. 
He took what he could find upstairs a week ago, knowing

this was his last trip. He pared mold off the last wedge
of cheese with a table knife, then tried it on his arm.

Twice he heard the phone ring, the second time for an hour.
He remembered to put the cat outside. He ripped the bag

of food right down, filled the water dish. He locked the doors.
The sheets have flowers on them. The blanket is wool.

A family of squirrels is living in the wall near the chimney.
They scratch and chitter all night. He scratches back.