Why Donkeys Can't Fly by Ryan G. Van Cleave


In late September, there's not
enough room in the sky.
The clouds are too cool.
The pear-faced moon agrees.

With winter coming, bundles
of sticks and water-slogged hay
need to be loaded somewhere.
The roads to market are slow.

And every donkey, ears so big,
wishes only to eavesdrop
on the stars playing pinochle,
God deciding whose thread to snip.

Still, let's wait a few more years
before reconsidering.  The night wind
is shy, a poor son of poorer parents;
its life, the blackboard screech of loneliness.

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RYAN G. VAN CLEAVE is a freelance photojournalist originally from Chicago. His writing has
appeared in recent issues of Shenandoah, The Christian Science Monitor, Notre Dame Review, and Mid-American Review; new work is forthcoming in American Literary Review, Quarterly West, and Southern Humanities Review.  He is the editor of Sundog: The Southeast Review and also serves as coordinator for the annual "World's Best Short Short Story" competition.  His most recent books are Say Hello (Pecan Grove Press, 2000) and the anthology American Diaspora: Poetry of Exile (University of Iowa Press, 2000).

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