gossip from the forest
at each bend in the road

unworded place myths
& hot green murmurs

breach the open window
sail my hand in the breeze

dented crashbarriers
whisper of stomachlurchings

minor ghosts of minor incidents
watched over by virgins

in mossrooved shrines who
see more than the incline

remembers a deathless
holidaymaking stretch

of patchwork asphalt washed
over by heavy exhaust

poured away into the forest
to haunt agglomerate

James Field lives in North Italy. His work has recently been published, or is forthcoming, in Hypnopomp, Levee Magazineand Riggwelter.