M. A. Schaffner

Yard Tectonics

A lumbering dog and crab apples not
ripe enough to fall – the recollection
of a frog and wandering box turtle:

and there were salamanders in those days,
common as mud-colored minnows, crayfish,
and algae in the rainbow-shimmered creek.

Like open malls the concept of outside
gives way for parking and ventilation
as engineering constructs.  The gardens

make do with what’s in stock.  One will always
find articles explaining how to cope
with the next wave of extinctions, if not

the persistence of old expectations.
Each year new fruits come to the marketplace,
some imported and some that always were,
but hidden in the margins just like us.

M. A. Schaffner has work recently published or forthcoming in The Hollins Critic, Magma, Tulane Review, Gargoyle, and Boston Poetry. Other writings include the poetry collection The Good Opinion of Squirrels, and the novel War Boys. Schaffner spends most days in Arlington, Virginia or the 19th century.