A pine sign
nailed to a
Doug fir
hand routed with
vermilion letters reading
V-tree
pointed toward a
surprise until my
eyes saw how there are
places one can’t
reach without
the aid of an
obscenity.
I found no such
tree on that trail
but did find a
couple who
sought that sign’s
promises—
he, lupine and
leaning away; she
clinging to the
dirty nadir of their
path—asking me
“Is this the way to the
V-tree?”
This is why
mendicants go mad
climbing to kiss what
cannot be found
why nothing stays in place
no matter what the
signs may say
no matter what’s been
nailed along the way
I said to them.
Joseph Byrd’s work has appeared in Fatal Flaw, South Florida Poetry Journal, DIAGRAM, and forthcoming work in WAXING & WANING. He’s a 2022 Pushcart Award nominee, and was in the 2021 StoryBoard Chicago cohort with Kaveh Akbar. An Associate Artist in Poetry under Joy Harjo at the Atlantic Center for the Arts, he is on the Reading Board for The Plentitudes.
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