The Leper Attends the Idaho State Roadkill Fur Auction<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Like mine, their removal
\nis detachment from
\nthe body, ruined
\nbut not too ruined.<\/p>\n
I think about the men
\nwho hustle the long roadwork
\nof Idaho, who have learned
\nthe language of blood,
\nsmeared down fifty yards
\nof highway\u2014the parallel skid tracks
\nof the locked-up vehicle,
\na body inside, a body outside\u2014
\nthose men whose job it is
\nto quantify the dead.<\/p>\n
Love is not
\nthe coexistence
\nof two alonenesses.<\/p>\n
Like the roadkilled raccoons,
\nporcupines, deer, skunk,
\nthe occasional bear, the coyote,
\nhouse cat, lost dog\u2014
\nlike all the other beloveds
\nlost on the back roads
\nof this terrible wilderness,
\nand like the men who
\ncollect, strip, and scrape
\nthe pelts, I would also
\nremove my skin if it meant
\nmy permutation into the world.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“The Leper Attends the Idaho State Roadkill Fur Auction” is reprinted from Ruminate.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n There was a time in his life when Thom Caraway<\/a> wanted to be a truck driver. He still occasionally regrets his decision not to pursue that path, a regret that was inadvertently reinforced by his son, Sam, who recently said, \u201cBus drivers have the coolest jobs. Why aren\u2019t you a bus driver?\u201d Thom lives in Spokane, and does a variety of things that, to a six-year-old, are not as cool as driving a bus. (Though one might be: Thom has just been named Spokane’s inaugural Poet Laureate.<\/a>)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Leper Attends the Idaho State Roadkill Fur Auction Like mine, their removal is detachment from the body, ruined but not too ruined. I think about the men who hustle the long roadwork of Idaho, who have learned the … Continue reading