Yes, I’ll haul your body
‘cross the river mama.
No wagon wheel will stop
me. No Mississippi heat.
No black buzzards.
No feeble light.
I’ve done a neat job.
I’m gentle.
I don’t want to wake her,
as I rock back and forth.
The plank bleeding sawdust.
My hands work ti’ll the
knuckles turn mule stiff.
I’ve done a neat job.
My mama ain’t no fish.
That’s why I built this boat.
Made it on the bevel.
And I swear—
No mountain range, and
no mud is gonna stop us.
On the Bevel
Liz Larsen
Liz Larsen is an MFA student and instructor of Creative Writing at Stony Brook University. She is a contributing editor for The Southampton Review. Her work has appeared on poets.org, The Junction, and Float Magazine. The Academy of American Poets selected her to receive the University Poetry Prize representing Brooklyn College for her poem “The Menstruation Trilogy."