Ceridwen Hall
Crossing Nebraska
April 2020
This is siege, this is war, says my car radio.
Grass oceans test my wariness and reporters warn
of hotspots, a growing frontline. Repeat:
our throats are rigged, our lungs smuggling weapons
into each word. A mournful choir rises
around the anchor’s voice. I listen too hard
to feel much, trying to pull facts from static
as I follow the highway through wind and vastness.
Heaven or hell? the billboards ask, then they offer
me guns and fireworks, demand babies from heartbeats
in women they will not shield. We split
at the center into needs and freedoms, then cities,
fields, parasites and hosts. This isn’t war,
we’re undergoing, but fission. Sunset glows
in the rearview, a searing, brooding past.
Ceridwen Hall is a poet and book coach. She helps poets and novelists plan, create, and revise compelling manuscripts with one-on-one coaching and inspiring feedback. She holds a PhD from the University of Utah and is the author of two chapbooks: Automotive (Finishing Line Press) and Excursions (Train Wreck Press). Her work has appeared in TriQuarterly, Pembroke Magazine, Tar River Poetry, The Cincinnati Review, and other journals. You can find her at www.ceridwenhall.com.