Imperfect Solutions

The airplane that brought us back
circled in and out of the storm

before it landed.
Turkey vultures draw dozens

of circles before they land.
A spider will circle every footstep

to avoid the shoe-bottom.
In all three tenses

existence is the same:
some can imagine

a year of loneliness
as the end of the world,

some the starting place
for salvation,

and some believe
these are two in the same.

Upside down on the yoga mat
trying to exhale the world,

the neighbor’s oak unloads
its bullets into our pool,

which burn the plaster
like scorched earth, become

the most breathtaking
meteor shower, exiting

the universe. 

Christopher Ankney’s debut, Hearsay, won the 2014 Jean Feldman Prize at WWPH and was a finalist for the 2015 Ohioana Book Award for Poetry. His poems have appeared in many journals, including Boston Review, Gulf Coast, Prairie Schooner, Fledgling Rag, WWPH Writes, and the anthology, This is What America Looks Like. He lives in Annapolis, Maryland, with his wife and two sons. He is an avid half-marathoner and traveler. He is an Associate Professor of English at College of Southern Maryland. Read more at http://www.christopherankney.com

Published May 2 2022