Fade Out by Frances Boyle

January 19, 2022
Poem name: Fade Out Poet name: Frances Boyle Poem begins: Acrid dusk streaks the sky, the ground hunkers down, rustles its coverlet of colourless leaves and branches loosely round its shoulders. Road stretches up pale before me, dwindles into distance, blinks back its new narrow face under headlights. Trees and fences, outbuildings and ramshackle barns shrug by, moonlight fingering cracks between boards. I focus on the road and the red spots rise over the next hill, go invisible beyond the crest, then re-emerge. This humming world inside of the car, the day long gone, smoke-scent lingers, engulfs me in night’s starchy linen. End of Poem. Credits: Copyright © Frances Boyle An earlier version of “Fade Out” was published by Floodlight Editions in 2020. Forthcoming in Openwork and Limestone by Frances Boyle (Frontenac House, Fall 2022). Frances Boyle’s books include This White Nest (poetry, Quattro Books 2019) and Seeking Shade (short stories, The Porcupine’s Quill, 2020) shortlisted for the Danuta Gleed and ReLit Awards and winner of a Miramichi Reader Very Best! Award. Her third book of poetry, Openwork and Limestone will be published in 2022. Recent and forthcoming work appears in Blackbird, Paris Lit Up, Madrigal, The New Quarterly and elsewhere. Originally from Regina, Frances has long lived in Ottawa.