"Archival Footage (Train Station)"
Fingers squared a frame, shaped
the camera's demanding sight.
What enters the eye: girl
gazing to green middle distance,
to far off concrete-seamed lot.
Cut then to her magnificent
friends, untouchable adolescent
promise glowing, waiting together
on the platform when off-screen
a voice shouts Run. The camera,
its reliable vision reels then,
spectacular panic of suburban
landscape. Sudden patch of sky—
corner of day so blue
it makes our mouths water.
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Author Bio: Nancy Kuhl’s recent books include Pine to Sound (Shearsman 2015) and The Birds of the Year (Grenfell Press 2017). She is Curator of Poetry for the Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.