Clint Carroll

Brothers


We brothers emerge from swampland, 
eyeless fish with toes, 
tossing our heads, 
reading the idea of light. 

Near Sevierville we evolve, 
the markings of lost Scottish tribes 
giving way to the local diner, 
ruler of our hearts and tongues, 
home of the Big Dinner. 

We sit among pungent men who slurp coffee, 
not knowing one day we too will slurp, 
walking forks over our biscuits, calling: 

We are angels! 
We are archangels! 

In the sun’s descent 
we can see the shadows of the trees 
spill over town from the back of the station wagon. 
We watch in retrograde our beginnings. 
Content enough.




~


Storm Impressions


I

This fence took me near a lifetime.
All I ever done is work. 
Hustling is what my son calls it. 
It takes time, though. 
Like love or salvation. 


II

Mother will carry me to the basement
when the birds quit. 


III

Concussions keep me half-awake.
The flashes outside the window
make ghosts of the curtains.
Violence in the light and sound.
Punishment that feels like a birth.



~



Bone

In 1973 a thigh bone, 
dark and tumorous, 
was found in sand 
older than Christ. 

You sit in your rocker
sallow, 
hollow-eyed, 
watching last birds in the gloam. 
Rest. 
You won’t always need legs to stand.

~


Clint Carroll is a pediatric oncologist and writer living in Jackson, Mississippi. He has work forthcoming in Appalachian Journal. He was raised in Iowa but spent most of his adult life in Tennessee. Both places influence his writing with many of his pieces taking place in southeastern Iowa or eastern Tennessee.


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