BUNCOMBE COUNTY DUMP, JULY

by Laura Cruser

Yesterday, I took the camper off the truck and loaded a bunch of junk for the dump
including the mattress we did stuff on. So naturally,
I thought of you, and last summer, and the window open beside the bed
our sun-crossed bodies in the afternoon, and in the evening
you stacked your breath on the backs of katydids, built
like the gathering storm. Like bullfrogs on the creek bank,
I gulped my fuel of air—and then came the rain, starting these mushrooms in the springs.
It was good work. The mattress stayed snug on the curves the road made
following the river, and the trees were full of light, and green.

Laura Cruser was born and raised in the mountains of North Carolina. Her writing has appeared in Arts & Letters, The Greensboro Review, and other publications. Cruser is a graduate of Arizona State University’s MFA in creative writing program and is a former poetry editor for Hayden’s Ferry Review. She teaches in the Department of English at ASU.