Missing

Steve Gerson

Three black crows perched on the school’s wire fence,

scoping the fields beyond for prey 

where the fields bled into the diminishing horizon. 

Above, a harrier hawk wheeled

on the gray March clouds. 

A windmill nearby turned slowly,

one blade missing,

the other blades rusted like blooming spores.

Its metal lurched,

struggling to find a breeze

in the drought-ridden sky and whirred

like locusts gnawing on dry stalks.

The school yard was empty.

The playground equipment swung in the dead air,

the metal clanging against the sound

of a distant siren’s knell.

Steve Gerson writes poetry and flash about life’s dissonance and dynamism. He’s proud to have published in Panoplyzine, Route 7, Poets Reading the News, Crack the Spine, Montana Mouthful, the Decadent Review, Indolent, Rainbow Poems, Snapdragon, The Underwood Press, Wingless Dreamer, Gemini Ink, the Dillydoun Review, In Parentheses, and more.

© Variant Literature Inc 2021