A Notebook Lost Near Tuscarora

Out where they scuttled the tracks
of the Erie Railroad
at Keshequa Creek crossing,
you’ll find the county mapped
with roads named for backsliders
and saints, for one archangel,
and a lone Redemption Street —
its lawns littered with toys,
locks changed or missing,
and a woman of indeterminate age
who will always tell you
with the toss of a glance,
Meet me elsewhere, her eyes ocean-blue,
even in the dark.

JC Alfier’s (they/them) most recent book of poetry, The Shadow Field, was published by Louisiana Literature Press (2020). Journal credits include Faultline, New York Quarterly, Notre Dame Review, Penn Review, Raleigh Review, Southern Poetry Review, and Vassar Review. They are also an artist doing collage and double-exposure work.