*
Charles Coe is the author of two previous volumes of poetry, both with Leapfrog Press: All Sins Forgiven: Poems for my Parents (2013) and Picnic on the Moon (1999). He’s also the author of Spin Cycles, a novella published by Gemma Media. Charles is the winner of a fellowship in poetry from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and was selected by the Associates of the Boston Public Library as a “Boston Literary Light in 2014.” He teaches poetry in the MFA programs at Salve Regina University in Newport, Rhode Island and Bay Path University in Longmeadow, Massachusetts. His latest collection is Purgatory Road.

Night Birds

A young woman lies in the moonlight
along the banks of a river whose name
she does not know, head resting on a coat
balled into a pillow, sleepless ears
taking in the sounds around her,
sighs and snores and quiet conversations,
an old man’s tired, dry cough
blending with a baby’s cry,
night birds whose calls remind
her of the home she left behind.

She lies in the dark, remembering a place
she knows she will never see again,
the village where she laughed and played as a child,
where now, men with automatic rifles
swarm the streets like stone-faced farmers
who sow only blood and tears.

Her body aches from a day riding atop
a north bound freight train, El Tren de la Muerte,
where those who lose their grip
tumble to earth, often to their death,
while the train, like some blind, mindless
animal, rumbles on.

But in spite of everything she has seen
she still believes in the power of prayer,
so she prays to remain invisible
to the men from the drug cartels
who sell those they kidnap
into forced labor and prostitution.

She prays for a home with a warm bed.
She prays that there is goodness still
to be found in this world,
that those she meets at the end
of this long journey will be generous and kind,

and in the moment before sleep comes at last|
the night birds at the river’s edge
add their songs to her prayer.

— Charles Coe
From Purgatory Road
Leapfrog Press © 2023