Kendall A. Bell

shade our eyes to veil the pain

we leave cemetaries scattered

in small towns, hidden in dense

woods where bones cannot be

recovered. we are a lost highway—

the overgrown and unloved path

set to crack and flame in the

company of crickets and dead

leaves. blown tires and rotted

train engines among the scrub

brush, we throw a tarp over

the evidence, wear out boots

over unforgiving gravel. cities

are just hungry mouths, are a

place to be swallowed, to be

a folded newspaper in the rain.

Bio: Kendall A. Bell's poetry has been most recently published in Olney Magazine and The Aurora Journal. He was nominated for Sundress Publications' Best of the Net collection seven times. He is the author of three full length collections, "The Roads Don't Love You" (2018), "the forced hush of quiet" (2019) and, "the shallows" (2022), and 32 chapbooks, the latest being "Still". He is the publisher/editor of Maverick Duck Press and editor and founder of Chantarelle's Notebook. His chapbooks are available through Maverick Duck Press. He lives in Southern New Jersey.