On this fourth day of National Poetry month, here’s a frightening poem by Roderick Townley.

The Red Blouse

Across Kansas on cruise control
he drives toward a woman’s body.
Stubbled fields flush orange

in the final light. He squeezes
the pedal . . . 75 . . . 80,
a mad organist playing his deepest note.

Ahead 200 miles, a woman
crosses a room, sweetens
her tea, meets with students. But

something’s off. A humming
like bees, like tires over darkening roads,
patrols her mind.

She searches the mirror for clues.
A coil of hair, loosened, hangs
like a bell-pull. She pins it up. No

use. Nothing is any use.
She touches her breast lightly
through the red blouse.

—————–

Originally published in The Yale Review;
also in Poetry: An Introduction (4th ed.),
edited by Michael Meyer. NY, St. Martin’s Press, 2004

The poem for this third day of National Poetry Month is “This Morning” by  Jo McDougall​. The poem is from In the Home of the Famous Dead: Collected Poems. Go out and buy it today.

Here’s “A Blessing” by James Wright, a perfect spring poem to kick off National Poetry Month.

A Blessing by James Wright : The Poetry Foundation.