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Julia Carlson’s poems have been published in many small presses, such as Ibbetson Street, Muddy River Poetry Review, Nixes Mate Review, Poetry Super Highway, and others. Most recently, her poems appeared in The Poet Magazine (Childhood Anthology). She authored Prayer for the Misbegotten (Oddball Press, 2017) and Little Creatures (Wilderness House Press, 2019), and two chapbooks, Drift and Turn of the Century. A graduate of Boston University and Toulouse-le-Mirail University (France), Carlson lives in Boston, where she reads, gardens, and cooks (too much). She likes rock and roll and a wee dram on a cold night. Follow on Instagram – Uberhu

View to the Monongahela River

Julia Carlson

I

From the big front bay window
as a brisk wind ruffles and chops
the Monongahela River.
Massive barges float past
like giant inner tubes
loaded down to the waterline
moving the supply chain onward.

II

And one donkey munches
on black willow scrub that grows
on the ever-crumbling banks.
A lone protector of a rented goat tribe
tasked to control the bushy overgrowth.
Cheaper, more thorough, than a labor crew
who prefer frequent coffee breaks
to cutting, scything, and raking.

III

Crunching on verdant springtime bush
the donkey is tuned to the air
now and then sniffing, then snorting
rolling his eyes, craning his neck
on the lookout for a coyote
roaming feral dogs, or wild pigs.

IV

The goat tribe has wandered off
to the top of the tumbling bank
ever-washed out and collapsing.
They delicately pick a path
moved by hunger, forced by instinct,
nibbling down to the very dirt
leaving only short black willow stalks.

V

On this side of the bay window,
white noise of a busy morning
water and dishwasher running
cabinets opening and closing.
We do not hear the donkey’s bray
that sends the wooly tribe into
a fast running mortal panic.

— Julia Carlson

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