In order to view this poem with the line breaks the author intended, we suggest reading it on a computer screen or in landscape orientation on your phone or tablet.

At the Old Man’s Place

dusk breathes
in the junipers
and cottonwoods.
Windows reflect
the first swirling bats,
a few clouds, and
the leaves
from the fruit trees
he planted
around the house.
When a small wind wakens,
he smells wood smoke
from the stove.
Cold night coming.

A few cars slap
tires on the highway
pavement.

He closes his eyes
and listens,
hears the doves
in the trees
scolding him
for being late
with seed.

—
Benjamin Green is the author of eleven books, including The Sound of Fish Dreaming (Bellow Ark Press, 1996) and the upcoming Old Man Looking through a Window at Night (Main Street Rag) and His Only Merit (Finishing Line Press). At the age of sixty-eight, he hopes his new work articulates a mature vision of the world and does so with some integrity. He resides in Jemez Springs, New Mexico.

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