Between White and Black

Laine Derr

A child, summers traded
like a numbered slip, she
crawls under farmhouses
dragging dead to light –
skunks reeking of decay.
Weary she looks beyond
the kitchen windows, cars
moving along their days,
folks who wonder if life
is but a girl lying against
a pecan tree, slender body
rooted in the land, eager
to outlive this sunlit day –

Laine Derr

Laine Derr holds an MFA from Northern Arizona University and has published interviews with Carl Phillips, Ross Gay, Ted Kooser, and Robert Pinsky. Work has appeared or is forthcoming from Mantis, J Journal, Full Bleed + The Phillips Collection, ZYZZYVA, Chapter House, Prairie Schooner, and elsewhere.