Behind the Camp

*
my uncle stacked crab traps, soot gray
wire twisted into empty blocks

bait and rope strewn in the grass
blue flies and fish heads ready for work

**
the men cleaned our morning catch
wiped their blood-oiled hands

on the tails of work shirts
as worn as dock’s wood

***
cast nets spread along the banks
waiting for the sun to drop

closer to the waterline        for gold
light breeze                           calm
to sweep them into air                      hope

By Jack B. Bedell

Biography:

Jack B. Bedell is Professor of English and Coordinator of Creative Writing at Southeastern Louisiana University where he also edits Louisiana Literature and directs the Louisiana Literature Press. His latest collections are Elliptic (Yellow Flag Press, 2016), Revenant (Blue Horse Press, 2016), and Bone-Hollow, True: New & Selected Poems (Texas Review Press, 2013). He has recently been appointed by Governor John Bel Edwards to serve as Louisiana Poet Laureate 2017-2019.