omens
by Tyler Lowery
witnessing something ancestral,
i stop the music and wander out
into the thickness of the evening-
there,
along the fence, in between
the walnut and maple saplings
woven into the chain link,
a rat snake coils itself
into an omega.
i can hear the trill
of a woman’s shout
play callback with a child’s giggle,
feel the hour split open
and smell, ever so faintly,
the rain coming down
from the plateau.
Tyler Lowery (he/him) is an anarchist writer from Appalachia. He lives in the shadow of the Smoky Mountains with his wife, son, and three dogs. He mostly writes poetry and short fiction, though he does have a novella or three in various stages of completion. When he's not jotting notes in one of his many journals, he can likely be found on his back porch, staring enviously at his neighbor's garden.
