Iowa Writes

KRISTIN HALL
A Long Ride to Ottumwa


Flower me in the Day Lily underbelly,
but briefly because the alley is busy
between those of us scraping the fence
and those of you calling it a labor
of love‚ ?like flame like fire,
I'm glad that's not me
smoking the boundaries.

On gameday, an intergalactic highway
painted into our yard prepared for you
with unseasonal sweat motivating down
the stone alley and rounding the corner
to the new white fence you can see
from blocks away. You are drunk
from your Huck and Tom genius,
passionately applied like another major
development in the landscape that has
stopped just for a while
before the blank defeat and long ride back to Ottumwa.

About Iowa Writes

Since 2006, "Iowa Writes" has featured the work of Iowa-identified writers on The Daily Palette, and it has recently expanded its scope to include work published by Iowa journals and publishers. Curated by the staff of The Iowa Review, "Iowa Writes" features poetry, fiction, or nonfiction several times a week on the Palette. In November, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) designated Iowa City, Iowa, the world's third City of Literature, making the community part of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network. Iowa City has joined Edinburgh, Scotland and Melbourne, Australia as UNESCO Cities of Literature.

Find out more about submitting at iowawrites.org


KRISTIN HALL

Kristin Hall was recently married and lives with her husband and two cats in Iowa City where she enjoys gardening and fixing up her very old house.

This page was first displayed
on March 24, 2006

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