Lynx

Lynx was published by Banyan Review in April 2022.

Miles of country road
a lush green gorge
dark comes too quickly
for night, an eclipse

as if God has
put a thumb on the sun
to up the stakes
of this game

your game
you pass a
towering dead elm
its branches bleached
white as whale bones

in a crook
a dozing black lynx
lifts her head
her yellow eyes

stare you down
you remember your torch
but its light
is swallowed whole
by the pressing night

you wake far from that valley
a rare June rain
taps the skylight
like fingers on a drum

If you like to hear Dave read Lynx, visit here.