John Whalen is the author of Caliban (Northwest Emerging Poets Series, Lost Horse Press) and Above the Pear Trees, which won the 2014 Floating Bridge Press chapbook contest. His work has appeared in CutBank, EPOCH, The Gettysburg Review, Verse Daily, and VQR. Visit 2River.
The winter issue of The 2River View is coming together over at 2River. In early December be sure to look for it, with new poems by Sally Albiso, Devon Balwit, Luis Cuauhtémoc Berriozábal, Renee Emerson Howie Good, Kathleen Hellen, Michael Mark Douglas Nordfors, Karen June Olson, J. J. Starr, and Nancy Takacs
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.
Muddy Bank 