Daniel Lassell

Churchgoing

In the afternoon, farmers
gather on a bench by the courthouse  

trading stories of the morning:
a cow’s leg recovered from coyotes,

two eggs in one roost, a stray dog
slimmed between fence slats.

A devotion that reminds the farmers
of weather, their tongues like blueberries

after a soft summer rain.
To share, to drink from that worship.

Two by two, city folk gather
in parks for a chess match.

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Daniel Lassell grew up in Kentucky and lives in New York. His first poetry collection, Spit (2021), won the 2020 Wheelbarrow Books Poetry Prize and received several post-publication awards. He is also the author of two limited-edition chapbooks, Ad Spot (Ethel, 2021) and The Emptying Earth (Madhouse, 2023).

Photo Credit: Austin Lassell