Lacking metes and bounds, the open—water seems
two—faced and brazen to seamen who reckon
with it; storm—swells tilt their hapless ships, scares
them stiff when the wave—horse's reins go slack.
John Estes directs the Creative Writing Program at Malone University in Canton, OH. He holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Missouri, where he concentrated in poetics and environmental literature. His poems have appeared in Tin House, New Orleans Review, Southern Review, Iron Horse, and AGNI. His first book, Kingdom Come, was published in 2011 by C&R Press, and he is the author of two chapbooks: Breakfast with Blake at the Laocoön and Swerve, which was selected by C.K. Williams for a National Chapbook Fellowship from the Poetry Society of America.