Fall
by Jeanine Walker
Falland the duck has spent
seven years flying south
duct tape on hiswing his beak
the last, fleeing trace
of a kidnapping
My paperwork sits in piles at my feet
I’m brought along by waves in air, in molecules
the word “obliterated” turns on my tongue
a bag here wrinklednoisy
from the grocery store and I
I am a Saturday morning
telling a grocery story
contained I ask happy? happy?
About the Author
Jeanine Walker is the author of The Two of Them Might Outlast Me (Groundhog Poetry
Press, 2022) and has been recognized with grants from Artist Trust, Jack Straw Cultural
Center, Wonju's Toji Cultural Center, and Seattle City of Literature. Her poems and
translations have found homes in Poetry, Denver Quarterly, New Ohio Review, and Poet
Lore, and new poems are forthcoming in New York Quarterly and Poetry Northwest. Jeanine
teaches poetry in Seattle.
