“Trajectory”

by J.D. Smith

There were giants then.
Genesis 6:4

In other chambers of then
there were nymphs and dryads—

or men whose thought had a place
for that long-lost company.

Hard-pressed to imagine them,
we outsource dreaming to keystrokes.

A passage is summoned, a picture, and in it
we may not find a place for men.

J.D. Smith’s seventh collection of poetry, The Place That Is Coming to Us, will be published by Broadstone Books in 2025. Awarded Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Smith has also published the fiction collection Transit, the essay collection Dowsing and Science and the children’s picture book The Best Mariachi in the World. He is currently working on projects in several genres. Smith lives in Washington, DC with his wife Paula Van Lare and their rescue animals, and not infrequently a profound sense of trepidation. Further information and occasional updates are available at www.jdsmithwriter.com.