Cy Dillon is a college librarian who lives in on a small farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. Co-editor of VIRGINIA LIBRARIES (http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/VALib/) he also writes a column on open access publishing for COLLEGE & UNDERGRADUATE LIBRARIES. Eight miles away
On tracks at the foot of Murray’s Knob
Diesels pulling empty gondolas north for coal
Blare air horns at every grade crossing and driveway
Between Magodee and the county line
The open window
Unfolds the night like a map
Eight miles away
On tracks at the foot of Murray’s Knob
Diesels pulling empty gondolas north for coal
Blare air horns at every grade crossing and driveway
Between Magodee and the county line
The storm rubbing the curve
Of
Thunders mildly
Polite as a dinner guest
While the stream below
Rises with the urgency
Of cloudbursts miles away
Down at the corner
A pickup whines toward home
As a skunk
Noiseless but easily noticed
Has left the woods to
Hunt grubs in the lawn
Just outside
Across the room
Karen looks up to say
“It’s beginning.”
As the first drops
Sound on the standing seam roof
She falls asleep
To the roar of summer rain