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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
REST STOP, HIGHWAY 91, by TIMOTHY LIU Poet Analysis Poet's Biography
First Line: Cars parked alongside a chainlink fence
First Line: Cars parked alongside a chainlink fence
Cars parked alongside a chainlink fence
overlooking houses that have no view,
plates from three bordering states aglow
in the light from a hillside billboard
filled with a glass of milk -- Holyoke
just beyond the notch, slumbering
like a rain-soaked paper on the porch --
checkout boys from the local A & P
hanging up their aprons, clocking out
on a night that is young only once
in a stranger's car -- the taste of skin
on clandestine tongues, freckled swirls
down creamy backs in constellations
left unnamed, stiff cocks under boxers
crammed into that vinyl dark perfumed
by a four-inch cardboard pine dangling
above the illuminated dash, windows veiled
with frost. They say the leaves will fall
earlier this year, like so many apples
plastered on the hill, wooden barrels
filling up with rain while children turn
in their sleep -- deaf to the sound of engines
running, their fathers behind the wheel.
Used with the permission of Copper Canyon Press, P.O. Box 271, Port Townsend, WA
98368-0271, www.cc.press.org
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