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  • Poetry
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  • Past Events
    • Fall | 2012 Reading
    • Spring | 2013 Reading
    • Spring | 2014 Reading
    • Fall | 2015 Reading
    • Gallery
  • Submissions
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MATTHEW ZINGG

Pastoral
    
            
The sparrows are figuring
their complaints again, beech nut

by beech nut, by rattle
and commotion.

Another plank falls off the boathouse.
A little more wind.

By the gutted riverbed, a ferry horse
beats the earth into a pattern like day

and night, day and night.
The moon with its fossilized crown

from a catacomb of pines.
The hogs bump blindly

against the axe handle.

There is a kiln in the basement
brimming with rat skulls.

There are enough notches
in the dinner table to sharpen teeth.

On the front porch, a girl is drawing
plates of breast bone, belly fat,
 

pickled spleen for the feast.

Three crows are arguing in the yard
over loose strands of hair, beaks

furious at work, three sisters
knotting the fingers of an old birch.

Through the fog, a suckling cry--
spoons ringing in their empty cups.




60   The Paris-American

Picture
Matthew Zingg's poetry has appeared in The Madison Review, The Awl, Muzzle, Blackbird and Opium Magazine, among others. His criticisms can be read in The Rumpus and forthcoming in The American Reader. Zingg received his MFA from Adelphi University and lives in Brooklyn. Photo was taken by Jillian Brall.


   
   Next week's poet:

 Nicholas Aiezza
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