CELEBRATION

by D. Eric Parkison

A rat. Spine stripped, discarded in scattered leaves.
As if one half had plugged into the other: a wet column
Emerges from low-waisted back legs. Hawk in the spruce. 
More the more I look: other cartoonish halves,
Headless, shrugging rats, a tilted rat,
Sleek and fetal, eyelids like down coins closing out the world. 

I tip up the bucket spilling garlic skins and browned cilantro, 
The peels of sweet potatoes into fizzing compost.

Braying laughter from the firepit, loud talk, pry me
From the spot. Back. Hands warmed at the fire, smoke of breath,
Stories in a circle after all this time apart. 
The redtail out there, reconfigurations of the living flesh.

D. Eric Parkison received his MFA from Boston University. His first chapbook, No Arcadia, was released in August of 2020. Recent work appears in Volume Poetry and the South Dakota Review. He is the recipient of a 2022 Massachusetts Cultural Council fellowship and programming director at the Gloucester Writers Center. He lives in Lynn, MA.