Three Poems by April Salzano

Tender Hooks

The queen has eaten herself
alive.  Her drones wait
for instructions that do not come,
smell the absence.
Rearing chambers are constructed,
royal jelly fed.  Brutal battle for the throne
begins between the first two to emerge, each
willing to die rather than do the thankless
work of the colony.



After the Rain

The birds call through last rumbles
of thunder, worn-drunk, wet,
undaunted.  Early dark is as welcome
as hydrated relief of corn stalks, weighted
and unified in sudden saturation.
White noise of steady mist does not know
one man's crop from another man's field,
blends seamlessly into woods that are
transformed into tropical for an evening
as the next front approaches.



The Road to Autumn Road

has been raked raw.
Patterns emerge in the dust of the dying
leaves that for a month held
intermittent beauty, cloaks of colors
deterring thoughts of coming
cold.  Stored chlorophyll is bartered
for water until the forest stands
naked and nondescript.




April Salzano teaches college writing in Pennsylvania where she lives with her husband and two sons.  She is currently working on a memoir on raising a child with autism and several collections of poetry.  Her work has been twice nominated for a Pushcart Prize and has appeared in journals such as Convergence, Ascent Aspirations, The Camel Saloon, Centrifugal Eye, Deadsnakes, Visceral Uterus, Salome, Poetry Quarterly, Writing Tomorrow and Rattle.  Her first chapbook, The Girl of My Dreams, is forthcoming in spring, 2015, from Dancing Girl Press.  The author serves as co-editor at Kind of a Hurricane Press (www.kindofahurricanepress.com)