VOLATILES
by Kevin McLellan
the humid air / a Buick
with tinted windows
slowly turns / on guard
you continue walking
/ notice a white woman
say in her mid-60s
on an unreliable porch
in a folding lawn chair /
she orders a young man
to put something / some
-thing ambiguous in the
trash / cautiously drawls
yuuure weelcoom maaam
as he walks away she
sees you / shouts nothin’
here what you lookin’ at?
/ also the smell of some-
thing sweet / roasting
peppers / onions / Italian
sausage? / now the burly
bike cop you saw yesterday
buying prescription sun-
glasses pedals by as you
face an open intersection
_____________________________________________________
Kevin McLellan’s first full-length collection of poetry, Tributary,
was published by Barrow Street in 2015. He is also the author of two
chapbooks: Shoes on a wire, forthcoming from Split Oak Press, and
Round Trip, a collaborative series of poems published by Seven
Kitchens in 2010. McLellan’s poetry has recently appeared or is
forthcoming in journals including American Letters & Commentary,
Colorado Review, Crazyhorse, Kenyon Review, Salt Hill, West
Branch, Western Humanities Review, and Witness. He lives in
Cambridge, Massachusetts.
◄ Previous page Apple Valley Review, Spring 2015 Next Page ►
the humid air / a Buick
with tinted windows
slowly turns / on guard
you continue walking
/ notice a white woman
say in her mid-60s
on an unreliable porch
in a folding lawn chair /
she orders a young man
to put something / some
-thing ambiguous in the
trash / cautiously drawls
yuuure weelcoom maaam
as he walks away she
sees you / shouts nothin’
here what you lookin’ at?
/ also the smell of some-
thing sweet / roasting
peppers / onions / Italian
sausage? / now the burly
bike cop you saw yesterday
buying prescription sun-
glasses pedals by as you
face an open intersection
_____________________________________________________
Kevin McLellan’s first full-length collection of poetry, Tributary,
was published by Barrow Street in 2015. He is also the author of two
chapbooks: Shoes on a wire, forthcoming from Split Oak Press, and
Round Trip, a collaborative series of poems published by Seven
Kitchens in 2010. McLellan’s poetry has recently appeared or is
forthcoming in journals including American Letters & Commentary,
Colorado Review, Crazyhorse, Kenyon Review, Salt Hill, West
Branch, Western Humanities Review, and Witness. He lives in
Cambridge, Massachusetts.
◄ Previous page Apple Valley Review, Spring 2015 Next Page ►
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Apple Valley Review:
A Journal of Contemporary
Literature
ISSN 1931-3888
Volume 10, Number 1
(Spring 2015)
Copyright © 2015
by Leah Browning, Editor.
All future rights to material
published in the Apple
Valley Review are retained
by the individual authors
and artists.
www.applevalleyreview.com
A Journal of Contemporary
Literature
ISSN 1931-3888
Volume 10, Number 1
(Spring 2015)
Copyright © 2015
by Leah Browning, Editor.
All future rights to material
published in the Apple
Valley Review are retained
by the individual authors
and artists.
www.applevalleyreview.com
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