On A Moonstruck Gravel Road

On A Moonstruck Gravel Road

By Rodney Torreson b. 1951 Rodney Torreson
The sheep-killing dogs saunter home,
wool scraps in their teeth.

From the den of the moon
ancestral wolves
howl their approval.

The farm boys, asleep in their beds,
live the same wildness under their lids;
every morning they come back
through the whites of their eyes
to do their chores, their hands pausing
to pet the dog, to press
its ears back, over the skull,
to quiet that other world.

From A Breathable Light, New Issues Poetry and Prose, 2002, and first published in Sou’wester. Copyright © 2002 by Rodney Torreson and reprinted by permission of the author.

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Poet Rodney Torreson b. 1951

POET’S REGION U.S., Midwestern

Subjects Relationships, Pets, Living, Youth

Poetic Terms Metaphor, Free Verse

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Biography

Poet Rodney Torreson grew up on an Iowa farm, and his plainspoken yet mystical poems draw on the landscapes and traditions of the Midwest. He earned MFA from Western Michigan University, and his poetry collections include A Breathable Light (2002) and The Ripening of Pinstripes: Called Shots on the New York Yankees (1998).
 
The former poet laureate of Grand Rapids, Michigan, Torreson has won the Seattle Review’s Bentley Prize, . . .

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SUBJECT Relationships, Pets, Living, Youth

POET’S REGION U.S., Midwestern

Poetic Terms Metaphor, Free Verse

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Originally appeared in Poetry magazine.

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