Shelter

Benjamin Nash

February 5, 2023

Black is the limestone above and behind

him from past cooking

fires in the rock shelter,

it is cold and he is

wet from the rain,

he has walked all day,

he is tired and he 

pulls out a few pieces of

pine that he always carries with him,

it takes a while for the wood

to finally start to burn,

he can’t see the green water 

of the creek below him

or the frog that he

is listening to in the night,

he eats a piece of dried 

meat and a few pecans 

in the yellow light 

of the fire before

he sleeps on the hard ground,

he does not know anything about 

us waiting for the clouds

to clear to see a few stars above

the tall buildings in the city,

or the yellow lights of a plane

coming down over the 

rock shelter hundreds of years later to land on a runway.

Benjamin Nash has Sun listed now with Finishing Line Press. He has had poems published in Concho River Review, Louisiana Literature, Texas Observer, Southern Poetry Review, 2River, and other publications.