Sikeston to Memphis

Missouri into Arkansas.
Mississippi ten miles,
no, a quarter-mile,
no, five miles to the left,
west, running south,
muddy and high,
even if today’s light rain
doesn’t tell the story
of yesterday’s deluge.
Every other farm field
underwater. Telephone poles
at sea, their nearest shoreline
the interstate. Bridge pothole
five inches deep
wearing water as camo
rattles teeth at 70 mph, swallows
tire, spits it right back out,
just in time to look down
at stream passing two feet
below the bridge. Clever marketing,
Five Star Truck Wash
billboard in flooded field.
Leave the farms behind
to cross the muddy river
into Memphis, a dry land
respite that doesn’t tell the story
of the new wetlands that surround it.

Ken Gierke is retired and has lived in Missouri since 2012. He is a Pushcart Prize nominee, and his poetry has been published in such places as Ekphrastic Review, Amethyst Review, Silver Birch Press, and Trailer Park Quarterly. It has appeared in several print anthologies, including two from The Gasconade Review. His poetry collections, Glass Awash in 2022 and Heron Spirit in 2024, have been published by Spartan Press. His third collection, Random Riffs, is forthcoming. He also blogs at rivrvlogr.com.