Cover Art: John Candelario, "U.S. Mail," 1942, Gelatin silver print, MOMA

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Blue Collar Silence

Silence wiped his oil stained hands
on the ragged cloth of us.

We’ve never been cleaner
than we are now, stripping

the gears of neighbors names,
hearing how unburdened we are

speaking in tongues
to their engine’s ghost.

Blue collar silence weighs much more
than wreckage of metal in bloom,

more than rusty handles on doors,
that once burned bright for the open

and close, more than naval planes
slicing the sky into strands of protective pasta.

There’s a car-seat in the yard
where a bottle of rain waits
​
for lips to return, waits for the mailman
to drop off a box wailing with wrenches inside.

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Daniel Edward Moore’s poems have been published in journals such as: The Spoon River Poetry Review, Rattle, Columbia Journal, New South, American Journal Of Poetry and others. His poems are currently at Mandala, Lullwater Review, Gyroscope Review, december Magazine, The Big Windows Review, Natural Bridge Literary Journal, Scalawag Magazine, Sweet Tree Review, Tule Review and Hot Metal Bridge. He has poems forthcoming in Weber Review, The Chaffin Journal, The Stillwater Review, West Texas Literary Review, Hawaii Review and Blue Fifth Review. His two books of poems, the anthology “This New Breed: Gents, Bad Boys and Barbarians,” and “Confessions Of A Pentecostal Buddhist” can be found on Amazon. He lives in Washington on Whidbey Island and his work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Visit Daniel at danieledwardmoore.com.​

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past, Jim Zola                                                                                                                                                                                        next, Terri Muuss