10 Psaltery & Lyre: Bennett Durkan, “State Colors”

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State Colors

If cartography were accurate
Maine would be grey
not pink like the map
in my third grade class
where at recess students practiced
their dribbling and free throws
never straying too far from
the hoop. They tossed
the ball, letting it roll
across their fingers
and hit the rim like waves
breaking against the jagged rocks
on the shore of this grey state
where ships are built
from the bottom up.
They will leave the dock
and find port somewhere
either green or golden.

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Bennett Durkan is pursuing an M.A. in English at Stephen F. Austin State University.