Down the Stretch

Down the Stretch

By D.R. James 

Artwork by Scott Bolohan

Down the Stretch,


late August:
sad leftovers of once-orange
day lilies. Half-
browned fronds fall, cross-
hatch, amass
their quickly declining
piling. But
from the entry-way window,
I can see again
that runt hosta! It’s baring
its buried leaves,
flaunting the flaxen beige
of its variegated
edging, waving its fading
purple pennants
into the post-season.

D. R. James’s latest of nine collections are Flip Requiem and If god were gentle (Dos Madres, 2020, 2017) and Surreal Expulsion (Poetry Box, 2019). His micro-chapbook All Her Jazz is free, fun, and printable-for-folding at Origami Poems Project, and a new collection, Mobius Trip, is due out in 2021-22 (Dos Madres). He lives in the woods near Saugatuck, Michigan. https://www.amazon.com/author/drjamesauthorpage