Commandment
On a West Texas highway
between Plainview and Lubbock
white text on a black billboard
proclaims CONTROL YOUR MIND,
OR THE DEVIL WILL!
urging passing drivers
and passengers to exert
self-control, search souls
flee from temptation
banish impure thoughts
refrain from coveting
thy neighbor’s truck
think righteous thoughts
in the service of fear
Exploring the Neighborhood After Ten Days Confined at Home Due to Surgery
Three flags fly above the Baptist church
ready for the Fourth of July, the sign
proclaims THIS SUNDAY: PATRIOTIC SERMON
a new girl named Tatiana rings up
my six-pack of IPA, salt and vinegar chips
at Brookshire’s supermarket
my favorite neighbor has swapped
his Land Rover for a Suburban
losing his hint of European cool
three more houses are for sale
or lease and Matt across the street
has just mown and edged his lawn
the woman with pink personalized
license plates proclaiming OIL WFE
is moving out, leaving trash behind
the baseball fields, basketball courts
and playground are all deserted
the kids trapped indoors by heat
Old Ray on Olympic watches the street
on a plastic chair in his open garage
Katie panting faithfully alongside
empty recycling bins lie helpless
on their sides waiting for fathers
to come home and carry them inside
Terrero
visit the Terrero General Store
stock up on wood and water
talk with the locals and learn
the history and the terrain
learn the difference between
national forest and wilderness
public lands and private property
land management and land use
when the old white store owner
asks Who was here first?
and answers his own question
with The homesteaders, of course
hold your tongue and don’t say
The Native Americans, of course
thank the old man for the stories
the knowledge and the advice
take time to learn some
arguments can’t be won
Nathanael O’Reilly was born & raised in Australia; he currently resides in Texas. He is the author of the full-length collection Distance (2014) and the chapbooks Cult (2016), Suburban Exile: American Poems (2011) and Symptoms of Homesickness (2010). He is the recipient of an Emerging Writers Grant from the Australia Council for the Arts. Over one hundred of his poems have appeared in journals & anthologies around the world, including Antipodes, Australian Love Poems, Blackmail Press, Cordite, fourW, LiNQ, Mascara, Postcolonial Text, Prosopisia, Red River Review, Snorkel, Social Alternatives, Tincture, Transnational Literature, Verity La, Writ Poetry Review and Windmills.
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