Fox on Greenway Lane

Sometimes I think of the fox I trapped, pissing
out his relocation in the hardwoods. Will he
lope back to 87th Street to hunt the parking lot
behind the Baptist Church? Will he scavenge

scraps behind the Hy-Vee? I thought the old road
out of the city was fair—Kill Creek running north
toward the Kaw, sheltered by walnuts and pin oaks,
the shade and the sun negotiated by cloud.

I must have a narrow view of wildness—having read
too many books on edible plants. I can start a fire
with flint and steel. Seldom lost, I mark each day
of my passing with a knife, each slash

in the post—as sequential as sanity. The fox
trots east toward Greenway, worrying passage
along the creek bed, toward the cul-de-sacs
and drainage pipes—where he steals dog food,

skulks trash trucks, leaps a wilderness of chain link.


Al Ortolani
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"Aster" by Dave Petraglia

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Al Ortolani’s poetry and reviews have appeared in journals such as Prairie Schooner, New Letters, Word Riot, and the New York Quarterly. He has four books of poetry, The Last Hippie of Camp 50 and Finding the Edge, published by Woodley Press at Washburn University, Wren's House, published by Coal City Press in Lawrence, Kansas, and Cooking Chili on the Day of the Dead from Aldrich Press in Torrance, California. His fifth book, Waving Mustard in Surrender, will be released by New York Quarterly Books later in 2014. He is on the Board of Directors of the Kansas City Writers Place and is an editor with The Little Balkans Review.

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Dave Petraglia's writing and photography has appeared in Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, Better Homes & Gardens; more recently in Agave Magazine, Cactus Heart, Dark Matter Journal, eFiction India, Loco, Gravel, Petrichor Review, Storyacious, Thought Catalog, theNewerYork, and Vine Leaves. He lives near Jacksonville, Florida. His blog is at www.drowningbook.com