Waking

Brad Johnson

In the parking lot, a wake of turkey vultures picks
at the raccoon carcass’s skin with pointed beaks.

The brightest section of sidewalk is the square
beside the stairwell where the suicide landed, where

the school hired a power washing crew to clean
the stain instead of funding a memorial. Rain

falls. A single engine plane takes off behind the fence.

///
Brad Johnson’s full-length poetry collection The Happiness Theory (Main Street, 2013) is available at bit.ly/BradJohnsonBooks. Work of his has also been published by Hayden’s Ferry Review, J Journal, New Madrid, Meridian, Poet Lore, Salamander, Southern Indiana Review, Tampa Review, Tar River Poetry, and others.