Kenneth Pobo

Turtle Day

The sun is a pile
of burning leaves. October
demands a beer so I run
to the cooler. Lazy grass
grows slowly.
I’m lazy too. I’ve read
page fifty-two
in War And Peace at least
eight times, can’t push ahead.

I decide to do less,
not more, move
like a turtle,
not a rabbit.
I might go in the garage
and melt my car into
a steel gumball.
It only craves faster,
never giving in to brakes.

I loll in the yard.
A spider web hangs
between the porch railing
and the blueberry bush.
It’s perfect.
Like the breeze
wending through it.


Kenneth Pobo is the author of twenty-one chapbooks and nine full-length collections.  Recent books include Bend of Quiet (Blue Light Press), Loplop in a Red City (Circling Rivers), and Uneven Steven (Assure Press). Opening is forthcoming from Rectos Y Versos Editions. Lavender Fire, Lavender Rose is forthcoming from Brick/House Books.

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Fall 2021