Citrus Freeze

By Forrest Gander b. 1956 Forrest Gander

To the north, along Orange Blossom Trail,

thick breath of sludge fires.

Smoke rises all night, a spilled genie

who loves the freezing trees

but cannot save them.

Snow fine as blown spiders.

The news: nothing.

Large rats breed on the beach

driving smaller ones here.

Today both traps sit sprung.

Forrest Gander, “Citrus Freeze” from Rush to the Lake (Cambridge, AliceJames Books, 1988). Reprinted with the permission of the author.

Source: Rush to the Lake (1988)

Biography

Born in California’s Mojave Desert, poet Forrest Gander grew up in Virginia and attended the College of William & Mary, where he majored in geology. After receiving an MA in literature from San Francisco State University, Gander moved to Mexico, then to Arkansas, where his poetry—informed by his knowledge of geology—turned its attention to landscape as foreground or source of action.

Gander’s books of poetry include Eye Against . . .

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