What are those animals lurking in the weeds beside this winding darkening two-lane through the Cherokee reservation? Maybe they’re huge llamas. Donkeys. Oxen or asses. Mutant horses, shaggy and woolly. I’m amazed at my ignorance. I couldn’t tell you the name of that tree, that flower, that car coming toward us over the double-yellow line, white lights bearing down on our own animal natures.
Barry Peters lives in Durham and teaches in Raleigh, NC. Publications/forthcoming include The American Journal of Poetry, Best New Poets 2018, Connecticut River Review, Miramar, The National Poetry Review, Negative Capability, Poetry East, Presence, Rattle, The Southampton Review, South Florida Poetry Journal, Third Wednesday, Trailer Park Quarterly.
