The Slow Burn
of the Mill
Sarah E N Kohrs
I drove by and didn’t notice the
of the mill. The sun was sparkling
across the car’s windshield. Dame’s
stood brightly there and here
more deeply by summery thunder-
And, really, the blue sky had
I did notice the noose-treed house,
camoed nuke stuck tail-up from the
if I’m honest, the noose is only a
Seared on my mind like the white
from the car’s cigarette lighter that I
as a child. I didn’t know how old
as ancient as you would expect
America, not for somewhere else.
how bright the sky was? And
the lick of flames on the last-frost
your golden-haired son was smiling and
that once other sons feared rope-
slow burn
its frayed web
rockets
in ditches, cleft
storms.
converted me.
whose army-
ground. Well,
watermark, now.
bulls-eye scar
once touched
the mill was. Perhaps
for
Did I mention
who would notice
day, while
you kept remembering
burning at night.
Sarah E N Kohrs is an artist and writer, with poetry most recently in Cumberland River, Lucky Jefferson, and The West Trade Review; with photography in Glassworks, Gulf Stream Lit, iō. Sarah has a teaching license, endorsed in Latin and Visual Arts, and homeschools, as well as works in her pottery studio, creating clay art to savor. SENK lives in Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, kindling hope amidst asperity. http://senkohrs.com.