Still: The Journal

Thomas Alan Holmes

Dowsing

Wrist up, you hold a prong in each
inverted hand, thumbs out, and point
the joined limb skyward, forearms raised,
your knuckles pressed to sternum. Lift
your shoulders. Back and head erect,
you step toe-heel toe-heel and wait
until the water underground
tugs downward at the single tip,
your body a mere conduit
between the thirsty wood and water; they
will pull; the water draws the stick;
the stick will force your forearms down.
You kick a bootheel divot; dig.

~

Thomas Alan Holmes, a member of the East Tennessee State University English faculty, lives and writes in Johnson City, Tennessee. Some of his work has appeared in Louisiana Literature, Valparaiso Poetry Review, Appalachian Heritage, The Connecticut Review, The Appalachian Journal, Seminary Ridge Review, The Florida Review, Blue Mesa Review, The Black Warrior Review, Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel, Still: The Journal, and The Southern Poetry Anthology Volume VI: Tennessee, with poems forthcoming in North American Review and Cherry Blossom.

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