Rest, a new book from Margaree Little (poetry, ’12)

An excerpt from the poem “Return” from Rest, the new book by Margaree Little (poetry, ’12),

RETURN

It’s June, the last Saturday in June, when Wendy and I go back again to
search the wash.

In April a doctor found another jaw there, and another jaw means another
person.

Don’t think, thousands crossing every year, hundreds dying, which they are,
don’t think, this is never ending.

There’s a job to do, there’s a plan, there’s one man found by us, his bones
the sheriff left behind: we’ll bring the rest of his body back, and if there’s
another, bring that, too.

We park, walk up by the barbed wire fence and at the gate turn into the
valley, toward the first ridge, the trees brown and low around us, the high
crops of rock rising up after the steep downward walk, the dip between
them where we’ll cross into the second valley.