Muddy Bank

Mark Prudowsky

Before Work

Before dawn, before other crews pull up,
even my own; before a tailgate drops
and coiled cable, pipe and drills scrape the truck bed,
emerge and unpack themselves; before the apron

slung from the waist is weighted: fasteners, driver bits,
meter and tape; before conduit saddles obstacles, saws
wind up and roar; before a compressor kicks the drums of my ear,
I rub a cricked neck, look across the cove. A tanager whistle.
The soft swell of light. The sharp profile of a spruce on the ridge.

Mark Prudowsky is a retired contractor who now teaches in a community college construction program. He is a graduate of the Warren Wilson MFA program for writers.

It’s near the beginning of the Fall semester, and that means a new Fall issue of The 2River View, with exciting poems by Maggie Hess, Erin Carlyle, Clara Chu, Mark Conway, Caitlin Ferguson, Sandra Kolankiewizc, Josie Levin, Mark Prudowsky, Jill Roberts, Jonathan Scruggs, and Rebecca A. Spears–all fine poets ranging from long established writers to a high school senior. Keep in touch with Muddy Bank for a few teasers prior to the full release of the issue.