DRIVING DENVER ON A CLOUDY DAY
Yvette A. Schnoeker-Shorb
Gray highways, growling skies,
all defined by faded lines; even
the rambling clouds seem square.
I’m boxed within this grumbling
traffic thick with grimy ground,
a high urban pitch, and clicking
that resounds with incessant motion
of endless vehicles, fast-paced
then suddenly red with tail lights.
Gaudy, glittery digital screens—
one visually screaming
Better Billboards Start Here!
promises boredom is on the bill,
the swelling sell, sell, selling
competing with more humble
less distracting signs for safety,
direction, Amber Alerts, weather
warnings, closures; my attention
got off at the last exit.
Yvette A. Schnoeker-Shorb’s work has appeared in many publications, including Depth Insights Journal, Watershed Review, Foliate Oak, Conium Review, Twisted Vine Literary Arts Journal, Aji Magazine, Terrain.org: A Journal of the Built and Natural Environments, SLAB: A Literary Magazine, Kudzu House Quarterly, Caesura, the anthology Talking Back and Looking Forward: An Educational Revolution in Poetry and Prose (Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group), and others, with work forthcoming in Weber—The Contemporary West, Green Hills Literary Lantern, and others. In addition to past Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominations, her work received recent Honorable Mentions in 2016 from both Port Yonder Press and Erbacce Press. She has been an educator, a researcher, and an editor, and is co-founder of Native West Press, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit natural history press.