What Remains
They are unimportant on a Sunday
afternoon, swapping stories and sharing
a bottle of bitter wine on a bench
overlooking the river. These two
are grown men, and then some.
They don’t need to list their tragedies
on a scorecard. So many impossible things
have happened. But this is a safe place
to unravel among the quiet wildness, the sun
bearing down. Most of the time
we live in two places at once--
where we are and where we want
to be. But these men insist on belonging
to this moment. There is no talk
of before or after, just of now.
The birds, the water, the wine
growing sweeter at the bottom
of the bottle. By sunset, the wine
and the men are gone. What remains
is the river, always changing
and always the same.
The Corner
Mostly, I see men
smoking here. Sometimes,
children play here.
Women talk on
their phones here.
One time, a man
was crying here.
The corner of two
lethargic streets,
the edge of a lawn
that leads to a stucco
apartment complex.
There’s a yellow hydrant
and a concrete ledge
to sit on. That’s it.
Yet we gravitate here
to do our human things.
Here is where we learn
the mysteries of the world.
Out in the open,
where everything
is up for grabs.
Beyond the End
He is shamelessly happy
to take out the trash.
He descends the spiral staircase
and follows the stone path
laid out to the can.
Well, no longer a can--
more like giant Tupperware
with wheels. Late October,
winter on the way.
He has a smoke in the alley.
The neighborhood is dying--
everyone is moving closer
to downtown, closer
to the ache of the city.
He doesn’t mind--
popularity is unusable.
This row of Victorians
used to be elegant, similar
to the photograph of an actress
long dead, or almost there.
Only a matter of time before
the block is bought up
and leveled for something
monstrous and profitable.
We must be brave when everything
is taken away. He exhales
and looks up to where
the moon should be, but is not.
His beard is more white
than gray, his eyes
more closed than open.
Janelle Rainer is a poet, painter and teacher living in the Pacific Northwest. She worked as a soda fountain waitress, peach orchard laborer, and shoe salesman before earning her B.A. in English from Whitworth University, followed by her M.F.A. in Poetry from Pacific University. Her poetry has been published in numerous journals, including Harpur Palate and The Louisville Review, and her paintings have been featured in venues in and around Spokane, Washington. Her debut poetry collection, Two Cups of Tomatoes, was released in October 2015.
