Spring 2008

Table of Contents - Vol. VI, No. 1

 

Poetry    Interview    Translations    Fiction    Book Reviews

Garland Strother

 

Walking the Mall

A butcher in the city for thirty years
he retired to the suburbs for safety,
trading in his blue shotgun
for a ranch house, barge boards
for vinyl, a Ninth Ward man keeping
pace with neighbors at the mall
"for the health of it," his tee shirt
said, a gift he wore gladly for luck.
Gone from the daily walk a week
last year, he came back on a cane,
hopping across his own shadow
as far as it would take him, the right
leg bandaged from the foot to knee.
Gone again later for longer,
he came back on crutches, his leg
lost from the knee down, taken
by a thief he never saw coming,
soon taking the rest of him, too.
We knew about his wife and family,
his work and the war, the dozen
ways you can cut yourself
in a butcher shop, but no one knew
his last name. No one wants to ask.

 

© Garland Strother

 

            

Poetry    Interview    Translations    Fiction    Book Reviews

Website Copyright © 2008 by Loch Raven Review.

Copyright Notice and Terms of Use: This website contains copyrighted materials, including, but not limited to, text, photographs, and graphics. You may not use, copy, publish, upload, download, post to a bulletin board. or otherwise transmit, distribute, or modify any contents of this website in any way, except that you may download one copy of such contents on any single computer for your own personal non-commercial use, provided you do not alter or remove any copyright, poet, author, or artist attribution, or any other proprietary notices.