David Bottoms Poems

Loaded on beer and whiskey, we ride
to the dump in carloads
to turn our headlights across the wasted field,
freeze the startled eyes of rats against mounds of rubbish.
...

When I sat for a moment in the bleachers
of the lower-school gym
...

Twice through my bedroom window
I've seen the horned owl drop from the oaks to panic
...

We have all seen them circling pastures,
have looked up from the mouth of a barn, a pine clearing,
...

In the woods at the corner of our yards
we hang the plywood squares,
...

On the rough diamond,
the hand-cut field below the dog lot and barn,
...

Look, above the creek, hummingbirds in the trumpet vine.
Not too close, wait. See the green blurs
...

Through the orange glow of taillights,
I crossed the dirt road, entered
...

Lord, what are the sins
I have tried to leave behind me? The bad checks,
...

Sometimes when she sleeps, her face against the pillow (or sheet)
almost achieves an otherworldly peace.
...