Ken Raines
KEN RAINES delivered household appliances, played in a bar band, chauffeured, briefly janitored for Robert Redford, and sound-engineered Elvis-impersonator shows in Reno. Currently, he teaches at Eastern Arizona College.
Articles
Woodwork
He squints and turns the beam around,
swapping it end for end. He runs
his eye down the length of the crown
and sees an overall design
Natural Symmetry
The restaurant juts above the pond,
casting lucent shadows in those moments
that fall still between dinner and dark.
Reflections luminesce against the faces
Reclamation
The Oquirrh Mountains form a finger of land
which rests its tip in the Great Salt Lake. Slopes
behind alfalfa gently rise until they stop
where the motion of ancient waves left benches of sand.
Maps of Time
We inch forward on hearsay,
rumors, and puffs of wind,
working the ancient arts
of dead reckoning, stars,
Aspiration
Wind, shorn from the sky by glass
and concrete, whistles down the face
of the casino tower, flings the naked
branches of a sidewalk tree, and pours
The Passing Lane
Through the glow
of dashboard lights
reflected in the glass,
I watch a plow drop its blade
and scrape the ice,
knicking the blacktop.
Red’s Tire Barn Titans
They are overmatched from the beginning.
Even the black block numbers on their backs
seem to loom on the jerseys that hang slack
and flap about their narrow bodies, smooth
Archaeopteryx
Quarry workmen slice open the past,
pry limestone chunks with picks,
shave each delicate layer
with a chisel and a sledge.
Borax
The sand that blows along the bed
of the Amargosa waves and shirrs
and cleans as well as water. It scours
the tatters left uneaten by birds,
Mechanical Failures
The old man shimminates and coughs
along the shoulder of the road
and veers like the wobble in the wheel
that brought his Airstream to a stop.