Two Poems by David Chorlton

The Fading

 

The paint flakes away from the letters

spelling Christ is the Answer

along the tall white side on a trailer

left in a yard beside the Interstate

to stand before all weathers

while traffic on its way to Tucson

passes by. The message is paler

at each journey taken; in winter

when a chill runs inside the metal,

and in summer when the heat

burns right through it. Years ago

the words stood out, their letters

had crisp edges, and the black was blacker

than any black before it. Nobody

could pretend not to have seen it;

there was no way around

considering the possibility that here

was the truth. Now the bold assertion

has become shabby as graffiti

after too much exposure

to merciless light.

 

 

 

Along the Interstate

 

It’s a clear day for the Swainson’s hawks

coming home to summer

on the flyway north, and for the turkey vultures

circling the sun

while mountains crumble

into the sky where it touches the desert.

 

It’s a clear light that shines on the billboards

selling lies to the open space

surrounding them, and on

the disused water tower the freight trains pass

going east, west, and east again

 

to where the wind blows ill across the blooming

ocotillo, toward the wreckage

blocking the highway for the next

ten hours they say

at the truck stop stocked with souvenir coyotes

made in China, but one driver

 

swaying gently with the country music

that plays in the urinals

says nothing will stop him

from leaving right now; he knows

the roads only birds can see.

 

 

 

David Chorlton was born in Austria, grew up in Manchester, England, and went to live for several years in Vienna before moving to Phoenix in 1978. Arizona’s landscapes and wildlife have become increasingly important to him and a significant part of his poetry. His most recent collection is The Devil’s Sonata from FutureCycle Press. The shadow side of Vienna provides the core of The Taste of Fog, a work of fiction published by Rain Mountain Press.