As the Crow Flies

/ Issue 11.1 /

Down the alley and over the fence.
Across the field, behind the waterworks.
C-section, getaway car, skip a grade.

Canoes and portages, the Cumberland Gap,
the Silk Road, express train, the Suez Canal.
Get me there, get me there sooner.

Squeeze through, scooch under, flying leap.
Trapdoor, hidden staircase, escape ladder.
And here is the ribbon on a branch to mark

the shortcut to the beach, the edge, the brink.
Let me stay here a little longer.

Michelle Boisseau

Michelle Boisseau

Michelle Boisseau published five books of poetry, most recently Among the Gorgons (University of Tampa Press, 2016) and A Sunday in God-Years (University of Arkansas Press, 2009). She was twice awarded fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation. She was invited by the late Robert Wallace to co-write the textbook Writing Poems (Longman), now in its eighth edition. She taught for 22 years at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, where she served as Senior Editor of BkMk Press and Contributing Editor of New Letters. A lifelong baseball fan and a graduate of the University of Houston doctoral program in Creative Writing, Michelle, who died in November 2017, lived to see a team she loved—the Houston Astros—win the World Series.
Michelle Boisseau

Also by Michelle Boisseau (see all)

Author: Michelle Boisseau

Michelle Boisseau published five books of poetry, most recently Among the Gorgons (University of Tampa Press, 2016) and A Sunday in God-Years (University of Arkansas Press, 2009). She was twice awarded fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation. She was invited by the late Robert Wallace to co-write the textbook Writing Poems (Longman), now in its eighth edition. She taught for 22 years at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, where she served as Senior Editor of BkMk Press and Contributing Editor of New Letters. A lifelong baseball fan and a graduate of the University of Houston doctoral program in Creative Writing, Michelle, who died in November 2017, lived to see a team she loved—the Houston Astros—win the World Series.