Eileen Pettycrew

​Image by Mike Beaumont from Pexels                                                                   

Eileen Pettycrew’s poems have appeared or are forthcoming in New Ohio Review, CALYX Journal, Cave Wall Press, SWWIM Every Day, and other journals. In 2022 she was one of two runners-up for the Prime Number Magazine Award for Poetry from Press 53, a finalist for the NORward Prize for Poetry from New Ohio Review, and a finalist for the New Letters Award for Poetry. Her work has been recognized with a Pushcart Prize nomination. Eileen lives in Portland, Oregon.

​Fourth of July

—beginning with a line by Philip Levine

That night beside the great river 

I saw your colors, America.

I felt your stubble of darkness 

scrape my face raw,

while you swore 

to light up the water

and stay that way forever. 

America, you’re a flirt

smoking unfiltered cigarettes

in dim midwestern bars, 

dancing with silhouettes 

that tip their hats and wink. 

Duct-tape America,

meat-hook America, 

bar-code America scanning

the horizon’s cheap plastic. 

I call you Payday, 

Punch Drunk, 

Clean-Up on Aisle Four. 

I call you Blood Stain,

Bullhorn, Broken Lamp 

on the Floor. America,

I loved you. My burden,

my sin, my down 

and dirty twin, great river 

dumping me in. 

It’s morning, America.

I’m still here.

Your current pulling me

sideways to the sea.

Your water green, so green,

as if painted by trees.

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