INHERITANCE

It leans in the shade
against the white frame garage
a bike once red now rusted
through three layers of siblings
so much so it no longer has
a name of its own

But it is a Coke at Cashio’s store
blackberries black snakes
and near-forgotten black graves
at Little Misery
a one-plank bridge to cross
in Thibodeaux Woods

It is the wind in your face 
when you coast hands free
towards home
as dark settles in
Or is that the future
you feel rushing

headlong towards you
bringing with it
every woman
you will ever love
and all those
you will never find? 

A native of Baton Rouge, Michael Blanchard now lives in the Cadron Valley of Central Arkansas, where he is an adjunct professor of literature at the University of Central Arkansas and editor of SLANT, UCA’s international journal of contemporary poetry. Recent publications include four books of poetry, the most recent of which is The Pearl Diver’s Daughter & Other Poems (2023). His poems can also be found in the Alabama Literary Review, Quarry, Voyeur, Cave Region Review, Bayou Magazine, and Broad River Review, among others. In addition, he is a frequent contributor to Southern Literary Review.