Lightning bugs prick the darkness,
\nrising from a soft fall.
\nJude and Cora cup their hands
\nover the bugs, peering between their thumbs.
\nThe yellow lights pulse,
\nlittle stars in their sky-dark hands.
\nMy wife\u2019s Mawmaw pulls a cigarette
\ndown to the filter, drowning the nub
\nin the morning\u2019s dregs of coffee.
\nDogs collapsed into commas at her feet.<\/p>\n
The logwoods get men money We laugh around the table, The moonshine stills that dripped We waded into the family\u2019s creek. Lightning bugs prick the darkness, rising from a soft fall. Jude and Cora cup their hands over the bugs, peering between their thumbs. The yellow lights pulse, little stars in their sky-dark hands. My wife\u2019s Mawmaw pulls a cigarette down to the filter, drowning the nub in the morning\u2019s dregs of coffee. Dogs collapsed into […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[25],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Jypy-2pu","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9268"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9268"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10159,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9268\/revisions\/10159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nin their pockets. The cash comes in thick
\nsticky stacks that the men peel apart.
\nEven the best have stories of trees
\nawakening at the saws\u2019 final cut,
\nelectrified, leaping from the stump.
\nTheir many arms outstretched,
\ngrabbing on their way down.
\nTrunks snapping men\u2019s limbs,
\nsplitting their skulls into kindling
\nperfect for the stove.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nfood mounded like a church covered-dish
\non Mawmaw and Pawpaw\u2019s kitchen counters.
\nDouble-third cousins,
\na kin that sounds worse than it is.
\nMawmaw says they\u2019re no more inbred
\nthan anyone else this far out.
\nThe holler is a hard place to love
\nand a harder place to leave.<\/p>\n
\nblindingly clear liquid
\nhave evaporated from the woods.
\nThe old men who ran them
\neither eaten by cancer
\nor drown by drink.
\nNow cousins duct-tape the trailer\u2019s
\nbedroom door shut to cook meth
\nso that the fumes won\u2019t
\nslither around the babies
\nwho sleep where they fall
\nlike dropped dolls.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nOur children flipped rocks,
\nlooking for crawdads, the brown bodies
\ndotted like the creek floor.
\nI limped into the cold sting of water,
\nmy feet tender on the rocky creek bed.
\nIt took ten rocks,
\nbut I found a crawdad,
\nmore insect than meal.
\nThe claws waving,
\nclamping the base of my thumb.
\nOur children already lining a bucket
\nwith their captives.<\/p>\nTy Stumpf<\/a><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"