i want to tell you about the mountain
in the dark i see them before they leave
every boy in my town
born with river whispering
soft and sweet
their faces eyes set in and dark
we used to watch them by the river
every son called forward one by one
pulled by the thing in them
that knowing
some deep river call
some inescapable need to prove
the boys in our town fade into men
we watch them at the river
we see them disappear
when my boy died i couldn’t let go of anything
the first time i saw a dead boy i hardly noticed
he was a shadow of a shadow half visible and doe soft
eventually i saw them everywhere
dying boys all across the lawns and highways
the churches and schools jostling about
bumping each other gently and murmuring
always murmuring
my there can you wait wait
sometimes i tried to listen and sometimes i didn’t
let the words float past me into the telephone wires
and contrails past the geese flying south
away away
at first, i could let them go they didn’t hold me
and i didn’t hold them
just let them drift
then my boy died
excerpt from O Body
R Daniel Brown is the poet laureate of every crop circle in Ohio. Recent or upcoming work can be found in Boston Review, Apogee, VIDA Review, Cosmonauts Avenue, and others. They're the author of the microchapbook, Dear John, Love Letters to John Connor… (Ghost City Press, 2018). You can usually find them on twitter, @rdanielbrown.