John Schneider
Dust Devils
all dust devils become a ghost story
a whirlwind haunting unsympathetic fields
that can enter your mind along the ever
narrowing back country road always just ahead
the hearse winds slowly
around unresolved potholes and frictions
along the way all the dailiness dwindles,
vanishing into a shrouded countryside
we feel the crunch of each shred of gravel under tires
worked deeper into the roadbed it tears into our heart
echoes what little remains like flesh
and bones as if compounded in a mortar
and pestle grinding over 1,000
years of a life spent
**
two side-by-side horses fenced in look across
barbed wire briefly meeting your eye
their heads bow with heaviness as if
genuflecting to honor the passing vehicle
as if they too are reverential
as if they can read into our silences
**
this road like all roads leads to the cemetery
you can hear the mouth of the earth opening
an unhealed wound the haunting harmony of another
absence makes itself a home of this uncertain tempo
gravel against shovel shovel against
grinding black dirt everything smelling of gypsum
**
like dust devils struggling to come
to terms with their fields
all of this the stillness of you
grieving i have aged
wishing to be held before being held in mind
whatever comes after body there is darkness
John Schneider’s debut poetry collection, Swallowing the Light, (Kelsay Books, 2022) is Pinnacle Book Achievement Poetry Best Book winner 2023, NYC Big Book Award Distinguished Favorite in 2023, International Book Awards Poetry 2023 and nominated for the Hoffer Award. His non-fiction book, Dreaming and Being Dreamt, was published by Routledge in 2023. His poetry is a finalist in Atlanta Review’s 2023 International Poetry Competition. He is also a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee. He resides in Berkeley, California.