Jeff Burt

Jeff Burt lives in Santa Cruz County, California, with his wife, and several types of emergency kits depending on forest fire, flood, or earthquake. He has contributed work previously to Sheila-Na-Gig online, Williwaw Journal, Muleskinner Journal, and many others. He has a free downloadable chapbook, Little Popple River, available at Red Wolf Editions.

Bindweed, Convolvulus

Bindweed, convolvulus,
often forgotten in illustrations
of blue wildflowers,
not adept at climbing a pergola
or crosshatched fence,
known to linger on rock walls
at the base like silent drinkers
taking a smoke outside
a brick bar by the river

not the bright blue, swooning
clematis or baby blue-eyes
or dark blue spiderwort,
but washed-out eyes
of a Scandinavian sailor
with decades on the water
with no assets but an aged hat
and tortured stories to retell,
your child clutching your leg,
the tug, your hand
a latch that won’t open