Watch where now we walk: city shuttered from its own
past, abandoned tracks replaced with mulch and gravel
trails coursing through a park of imported forest
the way original sin veins every future.
Given choice, let’s follow the snake who understood
nothing’s good as its promise, every deception
possible only when still we fail to notice
what stink survives beneath the shine, still so willing
to lose ourselves to bliss. See: each path leading in
also leads out, exile the end of every road.
Brian Simoneau is the author of the poetry collection River Bound. His second collection, No Small Comfort, is forthcoming from Black Lawrence Press in 2021. His poems have appeared in Boston Review, The Cincinnati Review, Colorado Review, Crazyhorse, Four Way Review, The Georgia Review, Mid-American Review, Salamander, Third Coast, and other journals. Originally from Lowell, Massachusetts, he lives near Boston with his family.
