Hometown

Hartsburg, Missouri

A coyote cry that tears through sleep
in the country-dark. The bleats
+ bells from goats heavy with milk,
the creek that overflows + leaves
crawdads + catfish breathless
in backyards. The ditch
where folks toss their trash:
tires, television sets, a Maytag
washer. A boy abusing
Sudafed. A three-legged bluetick
never let off its chain. The rumor
of a cougar deep in the hills,
a caved-in septic tank that can drop
you, drown you. A cathedral of cedars,
the tumble-down barn with warped
wood, the abandoned car rusted
+ broken into by musk thistle.
The dynamite blast from the quarry
that rattles windows, the fog flung
over the valley like a mortuary sheet.

Kieron Walquist is a queer, neurodivergent writer and MFA candidate at Washington University in St. Louis. His work appears / is forthcoming in Gulf Coast, Oxidant | Engine, Puerto del Sol, Swamp Ape Review, and others.