David Cooke was raised Catholic in Oakland, California, and writes and runs his business, The Lawn Guy from his home in Lake Oswego, Oregon.  Winner of the 2009 Ruth Stone Poetry Prize and nominated for a 2010 Pushcart Prize, his work most recently appeared in Hunger Mountain and Flatmancrooked.

Cooke says: "'Railroad Ties' started as a poem about my father and me working in the yard.  He hails from Wisconsin, is left-handed, and has fond memories of smelt.  That is about where it stops.  The dark themes of spousal abuse, torture, and the dehumanization of industry have no connection to my dad, I assure you."

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Railroad Ties

by David Cooke

Roads sweat tar and the hot tangles

out of the ground like swarms of smelt

in Wisconsin creeks the sun thuds

down on days like these.  Every swing

of my arm crepitates.  I am left with

the scent of diesel.

The hot drives the creosote

from railroad ties.  The hot pulls

secrets like a cattle iron put

to a man.  I am sticky from

the sting of it.  I can not warn

you enough with my pink scars. 

Creosote burns slowly. 

It creeps out of timbers and scorches

the tender.  Like the back of my hand

where it brought my strips of skin to boil. 

It is too hot for me to phrase it softly. 

I am too hard to melt which leaves

only burning.  I do not love you. 

I thought

I could make you come to say it.