IT’S GETTING DARK JULES LET ME HAVE A TURN WITH THAT MAUL by Javan DeHaven
Associate poetry editor Lauren Sparks on today’s bonus poem: In a series of tight, concentrically rotating lines, Javan DeHaven carves a blunt, yet tender portrait of a beloved—jules. DeHaven merges flesh and earth, color and texture, wound and weapon. The effect is both visceral and intimately surreal.
IT’S GETTING DARK JULES
LET ME HAVE A TURN
WITH THAT MAUL
your wooden face
split lengthwise
along the grain deep
termite furrows
around your eyes
where jules
you smile crushed
gravel washed
aside on the driveway
revealing rough-hewn
shards of moon-
soaked mica
and a broken
crook of blue
rock dislocated
nose that never did
heal jules
i can’t remember
if it was you or me
who said the earth swallows
so many pieces
of us we can’t possibly
hold it all
together for long
Javan DeHaven is a writer from Maine, where he teaches high school. His work appears in Kenyon Review Online and in Southern Indiana Review.
