for Andrew Grace

I look at the river and become a bent nail
in a leaning shed. I hear boys in the wind
throwing themselves against the shallows.
I offer my hand to the muzzle of the trees.
Heat lightning loosens its sash. The clouds
lean over a man who can start anything
with a screwdriver and a thimbleful of gas.

Michael McGriff is the author of four collections of poetry, Eternal Sentences (University of Arkansas Press, 2021), Early Hour (Copper Canyon Press, 2017), Home Burial (Copper Canyon Press, 2012), and Dismantling the Hills (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2008). His other books include the story collection Our Secret Life in the Movies (A Strange Object, 2014), a translation of Tomas Tranströmer’s The Sorrow Gondola (Green Integer, 2010), and an edition of David Wevill’s essential poetry and translations, To Build My Shadow a Fire (Truman State University Press, 2010). He serves as co-director of the creative writing program at the University of Idaho.