A Way to Miss

If you can believe, as he does
pausing here in leaf mush and far-off
highway hiss, that an arrow must, on its own,

choose to land—that sometimes to hang
forever in a blurred pocket of air,
neatly missing targets, can be a kind

of home—his botched shot a solid foot
left of the plastic buck’s foam gut,
his arrow swallowed by the dead

loblolly pines wallpapering the yard—
no crash, no caterwaul, and an hour on

he still hasn’t found it—the woods losing
voltage, porch lights clicking on in the blue
periphery as the sun waits, bored on the horizon

like an ex’s teacup Pomeranian sighing
in a mesh carry-on beneath a long goodbye

in the foyer—then you’ll understand
why he’s okay with the silence.
 
 
 
Corey Oglesby is a third-year MFA candidate in poetry at the University of Idaho. Originally from Washington, DC, he is a graduate of Frostburg State University in Western Maryland. His poetry has recently appeared in Beloit Poetry Journal, The Backbone Mountain Review, The Broadkill Review, the Clash tribute anthology Clash by Night (City Lit Press, 2015), and elsewhere. He currently serves as the Editor-in-Chief at Fugue Literary Journal in Moscow, Idaho.