Not Whiskey
           At dusk—west of Patch  Grove— 
           two bison become an  electric fence,
           a fox, a question about  crossing the street,
           yellow circles of fallen  leaves, a flower 
           arrangement that turns love  again to lust.
                      Four hundred miles east the bison, 
           lost in wandering, witness  a son
           bankrupt a bar, bust the  town of Black Wolf, 
           fold the farm as metal  folds in train wrecks. 
           The bison, alone again in  wandering,
           are not box knives, not  crows,
           not a soiled sheet, a  trailer-park-storm. 
           They do not go into the  woods alone.
           They are not a last dance,  drunk,
           not a blue jay, not  whiskey, not a time clock.  ![]()
   Contributor’s
  notes
  
    For the Record
 
    From Grace to Goshen
 
    Son
     Sweethearts