Model of a City in Civil War

Men carry a mattress retrieved from a dumpster past the flooded foundations of an unfinished high-rise, an old woman catches a pigeon in the folds of her dress the dead smile and rise from swimming pools or stand at attention on stamps. The landscape can't believe it's real-there is no ground beneath it, like what mirrors do. Adam Day is the recipient of fellowships from the Poetry Society of America and Kentucky Arts Council, and a PEN Emerging Writers Award. His work has appeared in Boston Review, the Kenyon Review, American Poetry Review, AGNI, the Iowa Review, and others.