Two Poems by Austin Veldman
Examination in February
The darkness that seems to hide
everything. A sudden
supposition. I seek deep folds of old
forest & the sound of glacial ice
grinding stones to sand. Shame and joy.
Outside, the wind brings hard
sticky, snow. Branches crack off the birch
from the new weight. The giving up.
But this all feels
like walking into familiar, deep groves.
This should not be surprising, but
it is hard in this world to give up the pearl.
I laugh
at the form of my infant son, potbellied
standing in water. Brain
still a collage. Suburban
worries worry me senseless. Again, the trees.
And the wild. Just joy.
Further north under frozen
waters, trout and panfish linger beyond
the shame I will not face in daylight.
Sit, child.
I am afraid nothing will happen.
New Turpentine
The sun only a small
bird, and I am like a bud of opal.
Oh, but to be this way
when all the world opens up with
its old, sweet terror!
In some other life, we are in Boca Raton—you are
stuck in rush hour traffic, sweet
sweat running down the furrows
of your spine.
I am in the apartment
swatting flies as time rumbles through
our sons, lengthening bones
in deep flesh…
Walking back into the foyer, I step
on a Lego. This is the life! I say this
and mean it.
We must not think of Florida as snow
falls. In the morning, we tumble out
to clear the walk. Tunnels through the embankments.
We must not think
of next winter even as spring arrives
like a dancer.
The sun still a small
bird. The rain appears
to know this.
Acknowledgements: “New Turpentine” and “Examination in February” borrow one line each from both Brigit Pegeen Kelly and David Dodd Lee (who was, in turn, borrowing words from John Ashbery).
Austin Veldman is a poet, editor, and collage artist from South Bend, Indiana. His work has appeared in Atlanta Review, Ocean State Review, The Café Review, Plainsongs, Ligeia Magazine, Midwest Quarterly, Glassworks Magazine, Free State Review, and more. He is the founding editor of Twyckenham Notes, which has been a finalist for a CLMP Firecracker Award for Best Debut Magazine and has received a Pushcart Prize. He is currently compiling and editing a second collection of unpublished poetry from Joe Bolton. He holds a MA from Indiana University South Bend, where he has taught contemporary poetry.
