Smoke of Horses

Charles Rafferty is the author of five previous collections of poetry, one collection of short stories, and two poetry chapbooks. His most recent poetry collection is The Unreachable Dog (Steel Toe Books, 2016). He is the recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Connecticut Commission on Culture & Tourism. His short stories have been collected in Saturday Night at Magellan's, and his poems have appeared in The New Yorker, O, Oprah Magazine, Ploughshares, The Southern Review, Cincinnati Review, TriQuarterly, Quarterly West, Massachusetts Review, Poetry Daily, and Verse Daily. He lives in Sandy Hook, CT, where he works at a technology research firm, directs the MFA program at Albertus Magnus College, and is on the faculty of the Westport Writers' Workshop.

• ContentsAfter the Flood5Diminution6Grackles7Golf Course Moon8An Adulterous Spring9A Demonstration of How One Thing Leads to Another10The Problem With Where We Live11Drift12Mal Evans Counting13Futility14The Man Who Bled Wine15Returning From Vincentown16Common Nocturne17The Bridges18First Owl19Reflection20The Problem With Wanting Something21Unnoticed22Flags23Genie24Metropolitan25The Problem With African Violets26Winter Festival27Leisure28Caught29Two Pianos30Two People Kissing in the Park as Seen From a Speeding Train31Windows32For the Last Polaroid33Carp34Aqueduct35Quarry36The Reductionist37Resumption38Royalty39Barbarian40Garden State Racetrack41The Problem With Mercy42Blackbirds43Swans44Hotel Bible45Catena46The Problem With Spotfin Shiners47River48Swamp49Magellan50Antique51An Explanation of How One Thing Leads to Another52Proofs53The Untuned Piano54Pelican55Ellipses56Forecast57Summer 198558Snowfall After Hearing Hard News59On First Looking Into Keats's Chapman's Homer60Obscurity61A Farewell to Poetry62The Saddest Bid for Immortality Ever Devised63