This selection, chosen by managing editor Krista Cox, is from Welcome to Midland by Logen Cure (Deep Vellum 2021).
Rainmakers, 1891
Eighteen months and not so much
as a spit of rain. Dirt stained
the horizon red; tumbleweeds
lined fences around scorched fields.
They say war makes the rain.
Day and night, the boys
tore at the sky, counted
the government’s dimes. No more
hand-wringing, no more prayer.
They flew bomb balloons, dynamite kites,
shoved explosives down prairie dog holes,
cannons reported in heaven.
The engineer would happily
show his letters, austere
signatures of all the decorated
officers you please—they told it the same—
raging battle then invariably violent rain.
The last balloon blossomed
into a globe of fire, illuminated
every object for miles—then
several dark seconds,
silent and open as the mouths of onlookers—
the inevitable crack, concussion,
birds taking flight and somehow
distant lightning.
Logen Cure is a queer poet and educator. She curates Inner Moonlight, the monthly reading series and podcast at The Wild Detectives in Dallas. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Her debut full-length poetry collection, Welcome to Midland (Deep Vellum Publishing), was shortlisted for the Reading the West Book Awards. Learn more at www.logencure.com. 
Krista Cox is the Managing Editor of Sundress Publications, The Wardrobe, and Doubleback Review. She’s a poet and editor and currently pursuing her master’s in clinical mental health counseling. Mostly, like everyone, she’s just trying to stay hydrated while she fights the system.
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