Residency Test at the Ore Dock
I no longer stop
when the chutes shudder and lower.
I don’t turn when I hear
the pellets bang and race to the cargo hold.
I’m not mesmerized as the ship unzips the seam
between Superior and the sky
but at night
when the freighter lights flow
between two wells of darkness
I cannot look away.
Janeen Pergrin Rastall
first published in The Michigan Poet
Author: Janeen Pergrin Rastall
Janeen Pergrin Rastall is the author of In the Yellowed House (dancing girl press, 2014) and Objects May Appear Closer (Celery City Chapbooks, 2015). She is a co-author of True Companions (Gordon Publications, 2017) and Heart Radicals (About Editions, 2018). Her work has appeared in several publications including The Dunes Review, The Fourth River, The Midwestern Quarterly, North Dakota Quarterly and Raleigh Review. She is the 2021 City of Marquette Arts & Culture Center Writer of the Year.