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A Suburban Elegy

I
This morning
crime scene tape
tightens around
the trees
and the train tracks
nearby shoulder
a slaughter
in cool steel.

How many
commuters
calmly pass
and slip into work
to rhythmically
click the keyboard
while the songbirds
remain silent
near the railway?

II
This morning
tire marks
scribble
the street
in rubber
and in blood.
Before daylight,
a drunk driver
erases the words
of a better friend
and bends
to the pavement.

On the same street,
the oldest oak tree
is stricken limbless
by lighting
and the hollow molds
into a mouth angled
in everyday anguish…

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Andrew Rader Hanson recently completed studies at UCL in London but now lives in Miami, where among other things he works at a law firm, fishes on weekends, enjoys photography, lifts weights, and reads widely. His poetry has been accepted by Clackamas Review, Broadkill Review, Ekphrastic Review, Birmingham Arts, and more. He was also selected as a finalist for the Key West Literary Seminar's Scotti Merril Poetry Award in 2020. For further info: https://www.andrewhanson-ars.org