wildscape. literary journal

I’ve Been Listening to Exclusively Country Music Lately
by Connor Donovan

I’m not so much a cowboy or a country
even less so a nation,
though I do have my own declaration 
of togetherness. 
Tennessee & Georgia voices singing 
something like Guns 
& Roses, bunch of boys in a Chevrolet. Talking proud 
of the town you were raised 
to believe in. Measuring your faith in ounces
instead of its onus. 
When I gave up on thinking of love
as a privilege 
it became a right. When I gave in to 
the eye contact 
on the bus it became a moment. Each 
morning, the dogs bark. 
Each morning, the dogwood bark 
scaling again as if 
summiting a mountain one day we’ll all see. 

about the author // Connor Donovan