This poem was the result of a writing assignment in a poetry writing class I took at Boston College

This poem was the result of a writing assignment in a poetry writing class I took at Boston College. We had to use the following words, one after another, in consecutive lines in the poem: aim, bait, balance, bear, dance, end, headline, howl, jump, light, mind, mother, move, powder, quiet, roof, service, sleep, snake, study, trip, worry, yawn, zero.

solstices

i aim to cast
bait on hook
feet shifting for balance
to bear the throw
dragonflies dance
a jig with no end
as the headline-heated earth
gives the sun a howl

young bass jump
light splashing off their sides
entering eye and mind:

life’s mother smiles

i move to winter:

slopes of unpacked powder
the quiet of muffled roads
skis bundled up in the roof rack

the service station attendant
his smile mixed with sleep
watches us all snake north
his bookless study of humanity continuing

he’s seen us make this trip a thousand times
"don’t worry"’
he says with a yawn,
"it won’t get much above zero".

mckavanaugh