” . . . flavored of tin from the lip of the cup of a dented thermos passed between us—”

Apple Slices
    —eaten right
off the jackknife in
moons, half moons,
quarter moons and
crescents—
        still
summon common
summer afternoons
I spent as my dad’s
jobsite grunt, framing
future neighbors’
houses out of 2×4s
and 4×6s,
    and our
brief and silent pick-
up tailgate lunch-
box lunch breaks
of link sausage,
longhorn cheddar,
larder pickles, cold
leftover roast-beef-
and-butter sandwiches
wrapped in paper,
a couple of pippins
from the Fall Crick
Pick-n-Save, and—
flavored of tin from
the lip of the cup
of a dented thermos
passed between us—
a hard-earned share
of still-chill well
water . . .
    Now
so many waned and
waxed moons later,
another well-paid,
well-fed, college-
bred paper-pusher, I
wonder that I’ve never
labored harder, nor
eaten better.

Todd Boss’s poems have appeared in Poetry, the New Yorker, Best American Poetry, the London Times, and on NPR. In 2009, Virginia Quarterly Review named his debut collection Yellowrocket one of the ten best poetry books of the year and awarded him the Emily Clark Balch Prize. Todd is the founding co-director of Motionpoems, a poetry film initiative now collaborating with major American publishers. His newest collection of poems is Pitch, published by W. W. Norton & Company.

Editor’s Note: “Apple Slices” originally appeared in the collection Pitch (W. W. Norton & Company, 2012) and is reprinted here with permission of the author.

Image: Apples, Currier & Ives, 1868. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.