Poetry
Baritone Twelve
He’s neither worst nor best, useful
for community choirs, but he yearns
for a solo. He constantly auditions,
believing in try again. Soprano Six owns
the star aria, Alto Eight gets a duet,
Tenor Eleven makes a trio. Baritone Twelve
gets sorry. One problem is that he’ll bury tone
in his thick and curly beard. Another
is that he can’t shave his beard, not now,
before the baby willow warblers fledge.
When they fly out – one, two, three! – he still
can’t shave because a tiny shrew-mole nested
its black velvet body inside his warm long locks.
The shrew-mole, on field trips, chews tunnels
and hums strangely. Baritone Twelve combs shreds
of bark out of his beard. Willow warblers slice
the sky with aberrant vibrato.
Sara Backer
Sara Backer’s first book of poetry, Such Luck (Flowstone Press), follows two poetry chapbooks: Scavenger Hunt (dancing girl press) and Bicycle Lotus (Left Fork), which won the Turtle Island Poetry Award. Her honours include a prize in the 2019 Plough Poetry Competition, ten Pushcart nominations, and fellowships from the Norton Island and Djerassi resident artist programs. She holds an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts and reads for The Maine Review. Recent publications include Lake Effect, Slant, CutBank, Kenyon Review, and Poetry Northwest.