Like a warped wood shed door that was forced nail shut closed right before winter and now what dry rubs grabs melds holds nothing hanging true: nothing fitting quite square: nothing standard gauge: and he keeps his foot pressed against the bottom corner and he wiggles his finger in to flex the boards: the sawing and pulling and giving back: jamb jimmying: all the while hoping nothing breaks off nothing snaps back into his face or closes on his knuckles: and the work is beautiful the effort, the struggle the fear is the candy coating paint job shine and shell of the plaster walls yellow as staining beautiful.
John Walser's poems have appeared in numerous journals, including Plume, Posit, Nimrod, december magazine, Spillway, Water-Stone Review, North Dakota Quarterly, South Dakota Review and Iron Horse, as well as in the anthology New Poetry from the Midwest 2017. A four-time semifinalist for the Pablo Neruda Prize, a Best of the Net nominee and a Pushcart nominee, he is the prior recipient of the Lorine Niedecker Poetry Award from the Council of Wisconsin Writers.
