Otherworld, Underworld, Prayer Porch. David Bottoms

section>

      Note to the Reader

      Copper Canyon Press encourages you to calibrate your settings by using the line of characters below, which optimizes the line length and character size:

      Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.

      Please take the time to adjust the size of the text on your viewer so that the line of characters above appears on one line, if possible.

      When this text appears on one line on your device, the resulting settings will most accurately reproduce the layout of the text on the page and the line length intended by the author. Viewing the title at a higher than optimal text size or on a device too small to accommodate the lines in the text will cause the reading experience to be altered considerably; single lines of some poems will be displayed as multiple lines of text. If this occurs, the turn of the line will be marked with a shallow indent.

      Thank you. We hope you enjoy these poems.

       This e-book edition was created through a special grant provided by the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. Copper Canyon Press would like to thank Constellation Digital Services for their partnership in making this e-book possible.

       This book, and everything else, is for Kelly and Rachel

      Contents

        Title Page

        Note to Reader

        Dedication

       1

      1  An Absence

      2  Studying the Small Hill

      3  Slow Nights in the Bass Boat

      4  Question on Allatoona

      5  Photo: Captured Gator, Canton, Georgia, 1960

      6  Blessings, Yellow Mountain

       2

      1  Spooked

      2  The Grocer’s Tackle Box

      3  My Old Man’s Homemade Dagger

      4  A Panic of Bats

      5  Summer 1968

      6  Baptists

      7  Bring the Beautiful Horses

      8  Turkey Shoot, 1961

      9  Hubert Blankenship

      10  Foul Ball

      11  Black Horses

      12  A Nervous Boy

      13  A Small Remembrance

      14  Cathedrals

       3

      1  Hospital

      2  Dress Blues

      3  Hovering

      4  Eye to Eye

      5  Spring 2012

      6  Attic Rats

      7  Staying in Touch

      8  Kelly Sleeping

      9  Remembering Flowers

      10  An Old Enemy

      11  Little King Snake on the Prayer Porch

      12  All Beggars Would Ride

       4

      1  Sundown Syndrome

      2  My Mother’s Abscess

      3  Rehab

      4  Baptist Women

      5  Arrival at Riverstone

      6  Young Nurse, VA Hospital, 1945

      7  The Moon My Mother Shot For

       5

      1  Close Call

      2