littered city lot
the earth labors mightily
for this one crocus

a dead highway doe
police will not report it
as a hit-and-run

passing by old farms
now harvesting fracked oil
empty roadside stands

a sudden ICE raid
the terrified gardener
clings to a scarecrow

William Cullen, Jr.

is a U.S. Army veteran and works at a social services non-profit in New York City. His poetry has appeared in Canary, Concis, Gulf Stream, Spillway, The Christian Science Monitor, and Word Riot.