TYLER JAMES RUSSELL

Tyler James Russell is a writer and educator from Central Pennsylvania where he lives with his wife Cat and their children. He is the author of To Drown a Man, a poetry collection from Unsolicited Press. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the University of British Columbia, his work has appeared in 365 Tomorrows, Riddle Fence, Halfway Down the Stairs, and Montana Mouthful, among others, and was a nominee for the 2011 Rhysling Award. You can find him at Tylerjamesrussell.com.

IN A NONDESCRIPT DESERT

Border sun, a glare

you visor

fingers against, camera

flare, a beat up 

truck, and

blue many-tendrilled 

vines come river-

ing beneath the sand.

Outcrop of pueblo, arch-

aic archways, a little

girl’s face in

wallet picture, the last

photographic proof,

her teeth, eye-

crinkle, where now bed-

board tied, ones and fives, 

an hour,

won’t fight.

Kudzu breaks the land, rises

for air, pheromone signals 

to the blue lights in the 

desert sky, not-

quite blue, but something

blue-ish, inhuma-color.

I am trying to tell you something,

what lies

beneath the pale.

Read more of Tyler’s work in Solum Journal Volume I.