Carol Parris Krauss is a mother, poet, and teacher from the Tidewater region of Virginia. She was recently honoured by the University of Virginia Press as a 2018 Best New Poet. Her work can be found online and in print in Amsterdam Quarterly, Storysouth, and Poetry24 amongst others. She enjoys American college football, gardening, and her many pets.
The Drought
Long ago father led me, all train trestle legs and elbows,
through Pisgah Forest on a day hike.
Near the turkey brush and mountain laurel, a hook, a tiny crook
of Pisgah River had run dry.
Cracked and segmented from lack of God’s grace,Momma said.
We walked the parched branch past
Farlow Gap, beneath a parasol of Pignut Hickory
and Scarlet Oak trees.
I’m still all elbows, legs. My skin a segmented, dried out
creek bed. Age spots, like river rocks, lifting on the edges,
scatter about hook and crook, marking my time in the sun. The
drought of God’s grace.
Carol Krauss
