In the collection poems titled The Afterlife is a Dry County written by Charmi Keranen there is a intensely large amount of ambiguity presented in each poem. These poems tell a story or make a political statement. To be honest, I did not particularly care for this collection. However, I see the significance of the poem and the aesthetic beauty of the collection as a whole. There was one poem in particular that struck a small chord within me.

Seney

It's slow going

waiting for the rock
to become a fish

the log
a grebe

the eagle's nest hovers
naked and known

but who in their right mind
would leave

the SUV to fight the deer flies

100,000 ticks per moose

*

We used a retractable razor blade
to scrape the inspection stickers

from each window carefully

safe for another year

yes, there was a forest fire

a virgin pine burn

then blue buckets of berries
all those following years

the town was skirted
like a woman

you're dying to surround

Hemingway said

The Big Two-Hearted

was more poetic

 Gothic girl

Are your amethyst black lips

 replicating the color

of your soul

or your pierced labia?

Do you walk the cemetery

whispering  secretes

in the ears

of the dead

asking for redemption

of dreaming books,

of sparrows,

or dead mice.

Do each

                Of your markings

littering your wrist

                                tell a story,

or did you just

                grow up in the suburbs?

Here is a first draft of a poem I recently wrote:

Chicago Skyline

Eating “rotten cow”

snuggled close in a two seat truck

watching groaning graffitied gas-turbines.

Gastropods loose in the cozy kitchen cabinets,

Compulsive straightening of covers

and fluffing of pillows.

Pretty little black dolls with thumbs in their mouths,

Protecting me from strangling stranger stares.

            My whisper

      tangled in strings.