J&M Summers
The month of calves like bowling pins jutting from tan shorts: June
is a different kind of hot and bothered, here at J&M Firework Displays Inc.,
Yarmouth, IA, country gravel, 15 minute drive from paved roads where we
work fire, peddle pyro, where office paperwork to paper-wrapped shells
smells of vanilla insect spray to keep gnats at bay, those bowling pin calves
built from hefting boxes, loading trucks, pushing carts and pallet-jacks,
slamming gas pedals, slamming feet against rusted bunker doors to check
if Box 12 of Order #52601 indeed missed delivery, if, among the dark and humid
spider-web-mouse-munched stacks, yes, there were more 3-inch assortments
from some 2000 year and we grabbed the wrong one—box to box and bunker to bunker
to sticker to restock to slip away for 5 minutes from cardboard and plastic
even if it’s in a 90⁰ semi-back heated daily—here, June is boxes, Life in boxes,
pack, pull, stack, load, racks filled—bowling pin calves bend to straighten
is a different kind of hot and bothered, here at J&M Firework Displays Inc.,
Yarmouth, IA, country gravel, 15 minute drive from paved roads where we
work fire, peddle pyro, where office paperwork to paper-wrapped shells
smells of vanilla insect spray to keep gnats at bay, those bowling pin calves
built from hefting boxes, loading trucks, pushing carts and pallet-jacks,
slamming gas pedals, slamming feet against rusted bunker doors to check
if Box 12 of Order #52601 indeed missed delivery, if, among the dark and humid
spider-web-mouse-munched stacks, yes, there were more 3-inch assortments
from some 2000 year and we grabbed the wrong one—box to box and bunker to bunker
to sticker to restock to slip away for 5 minutes from cardboard and plastic
even if it’s in a 90⁰ semi-back heated daily—here, June is boxes, Life in boxes,
pack, pull, stack, load, racks filled—bowling pin calves bend to straighten
Skye Rozario Steinhagen is a Latina poet from Iowa, who earned her MA in Theological Studies from the Harvard Divinity School in 2021. Her passions intertwine among English, Humanities, the Study of Religion, and Creative Writing. Her writing has appeared in The Green Shoe Sanctuary, Humana Obscura, and elsewhere.