Adam Chiles
Bluff
It’s a familiar script, a gull’s
attention to wind, gray
petal, feather-slammed,
accustomed to bullying, not me,
I turn my back on it, claim
this pool room’s lit pasture,
its geography of Bells, and contemplate
the erosions, a house
inching closer to the shore,
one already toppled, gate open
to cliff edge and horizon,
we’re all headed for the bluff,
the gale, its clarifying salt,
may as well enjoy the view,
I do, and when I step outside
for a smoke, night coming on,
its final verse and chapter,
who knows what I become
rowing off , wind borne,
my cigarette knitted to the dark,
all evidence pulled asunder.
Adam Chiles's work has previously appeared in Barrow Street, Gulf Coast, Indiana Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, and other journals across North America and the UK. His first book Evening Land (Cinnamon Press, UK) was nominated for the 2009 Gerald Lampert Memorial Award for best first book in Canada.
Return to May 2014 Edition
It’s a familiar script, a gull’s
attention to wind, gray
petal, feather-slammed,
accustomed to bullying, not me,
I turn my back on it, claim
this pool room’s lit pasture,
its geography of Bells, and contemplate
the erosions, a house
inching closer to the shore,
one already toppled, gate open
to cliff edge and horizon,
we’re all headed for the bluff,
the gale, its clarifying salt,
may as well enjoy the view,
I do, and when I step outside
for a smoke, night coming on,
its final verse and chapter,
who knows what I become
rowing off , wind borne,
my cigarette knitted to the dark,
all evidence pulled asunder.
Adam Chiles's work has previously appeared in Barrow Street, Gulf Coast, Indiana Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, and other journals across North America and the UK. His first book Evening Land (Cinnamon Press, UK) was nominated for the 2009 Gerald Lampert Memorial Award for best first book in Canada.
Return to May 2014 Edition