Two Poems by John Zedolik

Concern Immaterial

The truck cancels out, crushes
the bird’s shadow as it glides

across the smooth gray desert
of well-traveled road, to no

effect upon tissue of the living
descendant of reptiles lucky

and adaptable enough to survive
the impact of that asteroid

scooping a dollop from the Caribbean’s
lower lip so dooming the giants,

bigger though not as robust
as this Chevy blotting the ink

of this shade but only for a nano-bit
of geologic time, for the dark

in flight must be spirit only indestructible
to any earthly weight that might

not care to look for such evanescence
as it rolls up to another such bulk

as ineffective in eliminating such light
matter whose only commanding

sire is the bright sun, well out
of any heavy reach.

Wayfair

The Viaticum swallowed us
in its bitter circumference

as she took her Last Rites
before leaving with her traveler’s

portion for the higher road whose
surface now was fresh and smooth

while we forced down the gravel,
jagged chips, who were staying

below, the crust, acid, and gall
our only fare on that heaving day.

John Zedolik is an adjunct English instructor in Pittsburgh. He has published poems in such journals as Commonweal, Poem, and Transom. In June 2019 he published a full-length collection entitled Salient Points and Sharp Angles (CW Books), which is available on Amazon.