Accumulated through the season, like black exhaust
on white snow, winter cruelties linger—a dirty
epidermal merengue sealing in all that would
otherwise melt within us; the closing of the bellows
that precedes the closing case. We are pushed to the side
like highway-side snow; not so much disposable
as relocatable, strewn out to ever larger landfills
with our outmoded skills and hackneyed ballads.
Just a few minutes across the state line, you can stop
for gas and a bathroom in Verdi, Nevada. Despite the
beauty of the surrounding mountains, Verdi smells
only of diesel and nicotine. You have to be 21 to walk
the casino carpets. Posting bail with handle in hand,
the dead-eyed plow screen furrows, calling forth a crop.
Christopher Watkins’ second poetry collection, Famished, was published by Pine Row Press in spring 2024. His debut, Short Houses with Wide Porches, was published by Shady Lane Press. His work has appeared in Redivider, The Massachusetts Review, Harpur Palate, Hayden’s Ferry Review, and more. Watkins holds an MFA in Creative Writing (Poetry) from the Stonecoast program at the University of Southern Maine. He is a Poetry Editor for Rooted Literary Magazine and a Senior Writer at Deque, an organization advancing digital accessibility and equality. He is also a songwriter and musician with thirteen albums released under the name Preacher Boy. He lives in Santa Cruz, California, and has previously resided in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Seattle, and the west of Ireland.