A by Senior Writer-in-Residence Anthony Walton appears in the July 22 issue of The New Yorker.
Titled Dead Reckoning, the poem describes a couple driving across middle America, through Oklahoma and Kansas.
“Hard red winter wheat
leans with the wind while the knife of 83
bisects sunlight barely over
the near horizon.”
A small, tender drama ensues inside the car while hints of larger, more ominous outside worry the driver.
“I try not to remember what has happened
here, bloody grass prairie, Comanche
and Kiowa Wars—
wondering why I can’t forget
and simply love that she is here with me, unfolding
a map to determine where we are
and how long it is
until Salina or Amarillo, Wichita
Falls or Muskogee.”
In February, Walton's poem “Alzheimer's” was selected as Poets.org's poem of the day.
