Clue

/ Issue 14.2 /

A seed is lots
wider inside
than it looks.
Consider the less
than ample
starting size
of popcorn,
parachutes,
frankincense,
or touch-me-nots:
in each example
secrets to hide
without circumference
to keep the seal.
Consider what means
mother nature has
to disclose at the seams.
What certain books,
confessions,
rank offenses are
about, the smell
of this, a touch
of that, the puff
of fear you feel
jackknifing a cloud.
A skin so thin
will not contain
its sense. Just
get it hot enough
& listen: once
its inside’s out
you’ll never stuff
the stuff back in.

Henry Walters

Henry Walters

Henry Walters is the author of two books of poetry: Field Guide A Tempo, a finalist for the 2016 Kate Tufts Discovery Award, and The Nature Thief, a finalist for the Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize, to be published in the fall of 2022 by The Waywiser Press. He is also the translator from Italian of Enrico Testa's Ablativo, winner of the 2013 Premio Viareggio. His work appears in periodicals such as The Threepenny Review, Orion, Literary Imagination, The Yale Review, The American Journal of Poetry, and New Letters. He lives in New Hampshire with his young family, a hawk, and a hive of bees.
Henry Walters

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Author: Henry Walters

Henry Walters is the author of two books of poetry: Field Guide A Tempo, a finalist for the 2016 Kate Tufts Discovery Award, and The Nature Thief, a finalist for the Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize, to be published in the fall of 2022 by The Waywiser Press. He is also the translator from Italian of Enrico Testa's Ablativo, winner of the 2013 Premio Viareggio. His work appears in periodicals such as The Threepenny Review, Orion, Literary Imagination, The Yale Review, The American Journal of Poetry, and New Letters. He lives in New Hampshire with his young family, a hawk, and a hive of bees.