Paul Curtiss, US
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Free Verse
Twilight at
Oakland and Longfellow
Pink
summer streams
dot the leaf shadowed levee.
Crazy crickets sing
stroking their soprano strings.
Bullfrogs rumble.
Deep, sweet, bellowing beats.
Fireflies dance—
lights dashing, rears flashing.
A dog barks.
I cross the street.
Broken shards,
beer bottle pieces,
salt the cracked concrete.
Wild violets protrude—
parading, peddling prettiness.
Grass rivulets creep
in under my feet.
Above me
the street light flickers.
Hickory
Hills
Critters
crawl
through
the brush.
Your leg scrapes
the blackberry briers.
Monarchs flutter.
Blue petals carpet
the floor.
Fallen limbs triangulate
the crumbling
oak.
A squirrel skitters.
Rusted, crusted barbed wire crawls
amidst
the twig sprigs.
Ferns and phlox clutter
near a wild Iowa rose.
A robin twitters.
We retrace our steps.
The breeze massages
the leaves.
Raindrops mutter.
About
Paul Curtiss, US
Paul
Curtiss: Howdy folks. I’m a writer who delivers
pizzas for a living. I was born in 1971 to missionary
parents in the hills of South Dakota. My parents split up
sometime before I was three. At the age of five, my brothers
(a twin and an older one) my mother, and I moved to
Oskaloosa, Iowa. When I was twelve, we all moved to the
hills of Kentucky. You see, my mother wanted to teach at a
holiness place called Bethany Christian Mission Center.
After my twin and I turned sixteen, my mom decided it’d be
nice to move back to Oskaloosa. Well, I discovered
literature and writing while attending high school in that
fine corn encompassed town. After graduating in 1990, I
wandered between several colleges. I finally landed at
University of Northern Iowa—where
I received an English degree in 1997. My play Mere
Existence was performed in 1993 at Indian Hills
Community College. I’ve also been publish in Inner
Weather, conducted a writing workshop at Four Oaks
in Independence, Iowa, and published a small press art and
literature newsletter, Sparechange for five
years. Currently I live with my wife, Melissa, in West Des
Moines.
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