Leo in Bloom Magazine

The Field Trip

Wearing the hated purple shirt
That identifies 
A group of us
Takes my soul away

Within an orchard of apples
The plum colored terrors
Stand out
Soaking in fall smells

Of cider and donuts
The teachers try to corral
Our unruly bodies
Staring children

Make me feel like I belong 
With the goats in the enclosures
Reel images follow me
In the orchards

When I go with my dad
Of purple covered friends
Without the fences 
That restricted wandering 

The brief moments 
Of joyful freedom take me
To quiet rows 
Of apple-swollen trees

Recurring Adventures

The gravel crunches when I walk on it
The smell of hay
Falls down my throat
The cats run into the barn
Scattering when I encroach 

Your wonderstruck voices chatter out
The words stuck deep down in my belly
Your sneaker-clad feet 
Take you to the places 
My mother-held hand stopped short

Grain filled silos 
Tower, breaking the light in two
The rocky mountain spooky with gravestones
Nailed boards tilting 
Tired ghosts start to call to me again

Then my grandma’s voice rings out
She’s put the roses 
On the shared gravestone 
She won’t inhabit for years 
We scramble into the backseat

Back to the house
The others channel 
Nonexistent theatrical talent
Force the adults to feign delight 
Then twirl in borrowed dresses

About Will

Will Hansen is a poet, pianist, and a speller of ready quips. He makes his home in Massachusetts. Will is writing his first poetry chapbook.