Austin Robert Smith

If you have them,
you won’t be starving –
napkin rings.
_____

Finally got him right,
but now the crow looks
like he’s nodding.
_____

Growing in the night,
the eyes of old
potatoes.
_____

Summer night –
doors that can be locked,
doors that can’t.
_____

Drafty farmhouse -
all the wicks
curve the same way.
_____

Holding hands,
spooked a pheasant,
broke us apart.
_____

Summer in winter –
a hawk feather
in the hay.
_____

Late winter –
the ventriloquist
loses his voice.
_____

Feels foolish
shaking
his son’s rattle.
_____

One day too late –
the kittens have gone
wild.
_____

Asked,
the father pretends
to know Orion.
_____

In the window
the farmwife moves
to a different pane.
_____

No one left
to count on
the abacus.
_____

Distracted by love
the mailman
delivers his own mail.
_____

Funeral - brothers
handing back
and forth a flask.
_____

Halloween -
even the scarecrow
gets to be real