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Cleavings

A poem by Hank Kalet

What we thought was a crack
Was a slow cleaving split,
The long bough of white birch
At the yard’s farthest point

Crashing to the creek bank
With a dead hollow thud;
Separation had set
In, a pulling apart,

The interior rot
Finally weakening
The sinewy base and
Heavy white bark until

It snapped and down it came,
Snapping the fence rail and
Leaving the wood exposed,
A jagged scar, exposed.

Hank Kalet -- hkalet@comcast.net -- is editor of The Other Half, the literary arm of Voices of Reason, an arts organization working to raise money for groups working to aid the homeless and hungry in Central New Jersey. He is managing editor of the South Brunswick Post and The Cranbury Press, both in New Jersey. His poems have appeared in several dozen small-press magazines and online journals. His first chapbook, Suburban Pastoral, was issued by Voices of Reason Press this year. His blog, Channel Surfing, can be found at www.kaletblog.com.

Fall 2006 Poetry:

READING HOPKINS IN PALOS VERDES by Andrew Demcak
REFLECTIONS ON WRITING by Jann Burner
THEY BUILT A WALL AROUND THE OCEAN by Lily Bower
VISITING CAVE CREEK by Nicholas Messenger
PUBLISHER'S NOTE and ACKNOWLEDGMENTS by Benjamin Bucholz
THERE IT IS by Hannah Price
GEOMETRY AND A LETTER by Laura McKee
SENEGALESE GROVE by Holly Day
AFRICA by Kathryn Wagner
DEFINITION OF A TREE by Christine Hamm
AFTER MY NAME IS SPOKEN by Meridith Gresher
SHAPES IN THE AIR by Carolyn Syrgley-Moore
NEITHER FISSION NOR FUSION by Ed Tato
CLEAVINGS by Hank Kalet
A PILGRIM'S PROGRESS by KC Wilder
WHAT YOU WOULD CALL A LOOSE GHAZAL, I REGARD AS
ANOTHER SMALL, BUT NECESSARY, STEP TOWARD RECOVERY by James R. Whitley