From the Beginning by Douglas Cole

Those were some good words and a good turn out from what I could see. I was distracted by a flood light at the other end of the field where the road picks up. Sorry I couldn’t stay for the finger sandwiches and all those funny stories you told, but this new vehicle shines, and I’ve never had a lane so clear, pine trees swaying in the silver twilight and the big hotel in the middle of nowhere, windows blazing on my cool arrival with an echo like thunder from a closing door and thud of dirt.

Douglas Cole has published five collections of poetry and a novella. His work has appeared in anthologies and in The Chicago Quarterly Review, The Galway Review, Chiron, The Pinyon Review, Confrontation, Two Thirds North, Red Rock Review, and Slipstream. He has been nominated twice for a Pushcart and Best of the Net, and has received the Leslie Hunt Memorial Prize in Poetry and the Best of Poetry Award from Clapboard House. His website is douglastcole.com.

photo by Tobias Freeman