Aftermath (Photograph, 1953)

She points past a pile
of fallen trees—roots upturned,
knowing the grey-clouded

sky for the first time.
She stands
in their midst,

the logs lying
like a giant’s
game of pick-up-sticks.

The bank is eroded—smooth,
weather beaten. The ground
is soggy, and her knee-high

rubber boots seem to sink
even as she stands, still pointing
at what we cannot see.

Aubrey Young hails from east coast North Carolina. She is currently in her second year of the University of North Carolina Wilmington’s MFA program.