Front Porch Review
A literary magazine for the young at heart and mind

Swamp gas defines the character of bald cypress, black gum,
tangled Spanish moss suckled by decay, and
flesh-eating plants.
In a clearing the white egret poses in the sun.
Shackled zebra-men pound iron spikes in the opposite track,
securing our return
to the rhythm of wheat fields, morning glory.

First published in Exit 13, 2002

By Nancy Scott

Nancy Scott, a University of Chicago graduate, began writing in the mid-90s as a way of recording the many stories she’d heard in her work assisting homeless families and abused children. She has authored two full length collections, Down to the Quick (Plain View Press, 2007) and One Stands Guard, One Sleeps (Plain View Press, 2009), and two chapbooks, A Siege of Raptors (Finishing Line Press, 2010) and Detours & Diversions (Main Street Rag, 2011). She has become enamored with online journals and their far-reaching audiences, as well as with the juncture of art, poetry, history and memoir, having completed a manuscript of ekphrastic poems, On Location, mostly after Russian artists, as a tribute to her grandfather. More at www.nancyscott.net. Her e-mail address:  Nancy Scott