The rule is simple: to collect maple sap it must be below freezing at night, above by day. Go in only so deep— measure twice, drill once; this could be our refrain to keep from killing the trees. I’m careful, hold my cold palms against the bark, pretend I can feel the maple’s heart while […]
Brian Baumgart
Brian Baumgart (he/him) is the author of the poetry collection Rules for Loving Right (Sweet, 2017), and his poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction have appeared in a number of journals, including South Dakota Review, Big Muddy, Spillway, Whale Road Review, and Signal Mountain Review, among others, as well as in the anthologies Rewilding: Poems for the Environment and Working Stiff. His poetry has been nominated for both the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net awards. Brian is an English professor and previously served as the Director of Creative Writing at North Hennepin Community College. He was 2018 Artist-in-Residence at University of Minnesota's Cedar Creek Ecological Science Reserve and currently is a coordinator for the Minnesota State Write Like Us Program. He is the father of two teenagers, both of whom are absolutely ridiculous and terrifying. For more: https://briandbaumgart.wixsite.com/website.
Head-On Collision
Sometimes you arrive at the party too late, and everyone already packed up, kissed cheeks goodbye, vanished into tomorrow, and you have only begun to disappear. Sometimes you swallow the entire existence of earth, billions of years to digest, and the dinosaurs look like eels from this distance, small wriggly things. Sometimes you paint the […]