I Will Put You Back,
I tell the mattress I move awayfrom the alley wall. You’re Marty’s,
but he won’t mind. No doubt thisblue swirl I spray upon the red bricks
will open a dream arc, herewhere the wall crests and
the old mortar fails. Returningthe mattress, and just to be sure,
I tuck some cash into the holewhere I see he’s stashed a few smokes
for later tonight when the kinder starsping loose upon the wider vortex. [End Page 71]
Nance Van Winckel’s newest books are Ever Yrs., a novel in the form of a scrapbook (Twisted Road, 2014), Pacific Walkers, her sixth collection of poems (U of Washington P, 2013), and Boneland, her fourth book of linked stories (U of Oklahoma P, 2013). The recipient of two nea poetry fellowships and awards from the Poetry Society of America, Poetry, and Prairie Schooner, she has new poems in The Pushcart Prize Anthology, Poetry Northwest, Field, and Gettysburg Review. She is on the mfa faculty of Vermont College of Fine Arts and a professor emerita in Eastern Washington University’s Inland Northwest Center for Writers.
