Edgar Kunz
Shoulder Season

A few weeks in I begin

to get a feel for it. Cutting

 

glass from sheets wide

as twin beds to replace

 

the island’s blown-out panes,

I drag a scoring knife

 

along the Sharpie line, slide

a pencil under and let

 

each plate drop, gently,

so they break clean. 

 

I go from cottage to empty

cottage, thumb the glazing,

 

hide the seams. Cormorants

on the far rocks shaking out

 

their wings and calling.

Late sun striking the Atlantic

 

like a gong. Running out

of windows, I slow my pace,

 

make sloppy cuts I know

won’t fit. I toss them in the bin

 

and order more sheets

from Portsmouth, then spend

 

the day imagining fresh glass

riding out on the single-

 

engine boat, nested

with cotton blankets in the hull.

 

How long can I go on

not finishing? Radio says falls

 

are lasting longer and longer.

The weather could hold.

 

 

 

 
Found In Volume 51, No. 02
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Edgar Kunz
About the Author

Edgar Kunz is the author of Fixer (Ecco, 2023) and Tap Out (Ecco, 2019). He has been a National Endowment for the Arts Fellow, a MacDowell Fellow, and a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. He lives in Baltimore and teaches at Goucher College.