Shroud (Ghost Apples)

by Sébastien Luc Butler

the orchards’ stench / an redolent camp / high school
like a dreaming of high school / riding in the backs of pickups we had

our obsessions / our idols / indifference / & corn fields
& drunken midnight baseball field laying in the grass / yes

staring at the stars / believe or not / there were railroad tracks
we walked them / after forking someone’s lawn / hands blossoming

on a bottle’s neck / a slip / a shattering of glass / liquid left
squandering itself between crossties / there was

so much / between the crossties / of each others’ bodies
run over / ground down / hellos & goodbyes a strummed web

love / a few staves / one for each month / a month
meant a great deal then / in the making of our myth / lithe

fierce / the way the gym’s lights hummed through
the night / or our headlights / searching / a freak october blizzard

i wake now remembering / the frozen orchards the next morning
how the fruit would fall / until / only ice in the shape of fruit

& the dead deer / strung up around the gazebo / their shiny legs
hardened as twigs / slowly thawing / but still hanging there

for weeks / their limp haunches / dripping / in our rearview mirrors