This selection, chosen by Guest Curator Alaina Hanchey, is from Wolf Hat Iron Shoesby Martha McCollough, released by Lily Poetry Review in 2022.
Tree Shadows
cross the road
like cracks in the real.
Lying on cold grass
we look at the stars,
wait for the galaxy’s
dim cross-section
to fade in behind
bright constellations.
Our eyes follow faint
light into a giddy sense
of falling up into the sky
in a night full of noise—
small rackety things
shrill on the edges
of this field not thinking
of time or orphan light.
Martha McCollough lives in Amherst, Massachusetts. She has an MFA in painting from Pratt Institute. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in QWERTY, Bear Review, Zone 3, and Tampa Review, among others. She is the author of the chapbook Grandmother Mountain (Blue Lyra) and the full length collection Wolf Hat Iron Shoes (Lily Poetry Review Books, 2022).
Alaina Hanchey, known as Harley to both friends and foes, believes rhetoric is intensely important and the way we speak can change the world. That belief was shared by her best friend, Quinn Arielle Kerlin, who inspired her to volunteer and immerse herself in those words that matter, and the connections that matter.
