Shelter

by Dan Reilly

-for Joe Petrick

Not snowing yet
the car heater barely works
driving crisscrossed roads
of our wide country
that are faint traces
in memory

find that crumpled shack
by the river sinking
into cold wet earth
off rough pavement's wide curve
that mimics ancient water flow
the little place almost invisible
so covered in dead vine
and enclosed by bramble

the end of a muddy track reveals
a door covered in plastic
opening
and inside it is warm
as afternoon light slants
through hazy windows

scents of tobacco and coffee
enthrall as you speak
ah such comfort and joy
of your companionship
giving shelter
all these years

back then
when we had so much
it was the unhad
and now so little
it remains somehow
the unhad with
the been had.

Dan Reilly's poetry was first published by Pif Magazine. He was a featured writer on The New Guard's BANG! page. Poems and stories have appeared in Closed Eye Open, Beyond Words Magazine, Obelus Journal, and The Ocotillo Review of Kallisto Gaia Press. His story "Muffled and Distant" received honorable mention in a Flash Fiction Magazine contest. "Dream an Emptiness" won third prize in poetry at The Chestnut Review.