Now embroiled in 

autumn’s chill wind

that scours trees bald 

and sifts dry gray

wisps of beard

across a pale

sky, I stare my

defiance into that 

bright-eyed sun, 

vision too blurred

to scar, too old 

to feel that burn 

into my soles 

now buried too deep

in a world too

scarred and then

look back down to 

feel at home in 

my broken body. 

---

Richard Dinges, Jr. works on his homestead beside a pond, surrounded by trees and grassland, with his wife, two dogs, two cats, and five chickens. Green Hills Literary Lantern, North Dakota Quarterly, Studio One, Rockford Review, and Spadina Literary Review most recently accepted his poems for their publications.