Gabriel Welsch
Late Epithalamion of Appalachian Fragments
Put the apple Appalachian
hornet sap in the
windfalls
where is the pain
in barrel smoke
pinfeathers
a hawk abstracted
against a low
impotent sun
―
our anniversary
half the time
will greet the frost
your red finger
pressed to white
scrapes windshield
fading essence buck rubs
visible in breath
how do I tell you a tongue in laurel
everything in time
when I’ve yet to
learn limbs
―
if I had to sing of you as loss
I’d need blood slowed
to release the words
the rush in my ears
before collapse
a permanent cascade
Gabriel Welsch writes fiction and poetry, and is the author of four collections of poems: The Four Horsepersons of a Disappointing Apocalypse (Steel Toe Books, 2013); The Death of Flying Things (Word Tech Editions, 2012); An Eye Fluent in Gray (chapbook, Seven Kitchens Press, 2010); and Dirt and All Its Dense Labor (Word Tech Editions, 2006). His fiction and poetry has appeared widely, in journals including Georgia Review, Southern Review, Harvard Review, Missouri Review, as well as on Verse Daily and in Ted Kooser’s column “American Life in Poetry.” He lives in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, with his family, works as vice president of strategic communications and marketing at Juniata College, and is an occasional teacher at the Chautauqua Writer’s Center.
Return to March 2018 Edition
Put the apple Appalachian
hornet sap in the
windfalls
where is the pain
in barrel smoke
pinfeathers
a hawk abstracted
against a low
impotent sun
―
our anniversary
half the time
will greet the frost
your red finger
pressed to white
scrapes windshield
fading essence buck rubs
visible in breath
how do I tell you a tongue in laurel
everything in time
when I’ve yet to
learn limbs
―
if I had to sing of you as loss
I’d need blood slowed
to release the words
the rush in my ears
before collapse
a permanent cascade
Gabriel Welsch writes fiction and poetry, and is the author of four collections of poems: The Four Horsepersons of a Disappointing Apocalypse (Steel Toe Books, 2013); The Death of Flying Things (Word Tech Editions, 2012); An Eye Fluent in Gray (chapbook, Seven Kitchens Press, 2010); and Dirt and All Its Dense Labor (Word Tech Editions, 2006). His fiction and poetry has appeared widely, in journals including Georgia Review, Southern Review, Harvard Review, Missouri Review, as well as on Verse Daily and in Ted Kooser’s column “American Life in Poetry.” He lives in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, with his family, works as vice president of strategic communications and marketing at Juniata College, and is an occasional teacher at the Chautauqua Writer’s Center.
Return to March 2018 Edition