Mariah Rose
Dispatches From Quarantine
we take long drives to nowhere
smoke a cigarette for John Prine
you (former boy scout) always know which way is west,
how to make fire (you bearded caveman)
we search the brushwood for shed antlers
whitetail / cottontail / cattail / cat-o-nine-tail
flat yellow stretches of Jersey wheat fields
fisherman in their muddy yellow boots, wading
the trout-stocked Wissahickon Creek
magpie / mud pie / cow pie / bovine
go play your war games, chase after wood nymphs
“there’s whiskey in the peaches,” you say,
words drowned by the whine of winter-stripped trees
—Submitted on 05/06/2020
Mariah Rose publishes an annual zine called Boy Tears Mag. Her work has been featured in Apiary, Hyphen, Yikes?, 5×5, Medusa’s Laugh Press, and other journals. Rose lives in Philadelphia where she is a music journalist.
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