Jared Beloff

by Jared Beloff

Sweat fell from the digger’s brow or maybe rain from the gray sky; it was just a little water, nothing to worry about until they felt their legs pulled down into it. They grabbed their waders and continued with damp feet, each shovel heavy with mud and clay. The trees stood watch, their hands folded at their waist. Eventually, the diggers called for a third man, and they cycled in and out of the grave trying to finish, piling the slurried soil higher. The water continued to rise. Only when one of them held a small urchin up to his eyes, its bright pins pink between thumb and filthy fingers did they stop, step out and see the rocks protruding from the sides slick with flowing green. One said it reminded him of a drowned woman’s hair. One thought of his mother. The third digger knelt, his face near the surface, and only saw himself.

Based on of a Jeff Wall Photograph.

Jared Beloff is the author of Who Will Cradle Your Head (ELJ Editions, 2023) and the co-editor of Poets of Queens 2 (Poets of Queens, 2024). His work can be found at AGNI, Baltimore Review, Image Journal, Pleiades and elsewhere. He is the Editor in Chief of Porcupine Literary. He is a teacher who lives in Queens, NY with his wife and two daughters. You can find him on his website jaredbeloff.com.

by Jared Beloff

follow the line
from the mallard’s bright foot

pointed skyward to its wing
tucked, head searching the calm below

confident as a diver and nothing
amiss—ignore the bitter fruit’s

protuberance, the shade of a table,
contrast of the kitchen wall’s ochre

or the great open wing
feathers ruffled, held by the hollow

bone, ligaments like thin twine
stretched beyond the thigh,

one leg left open
as if searching for purchase

or a reminder, even now,
of life’s cruel arrangement.

Inspired by Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin’s painting.

Jared Beloff is the author of WHO WILL CRADLE YOUR HEAD (ELJ Editions, 2023). He is the editor of the Marvel inspired poetry anthology, Marvelous Verses (Daily Drunk, 2021) and has been a peer-reviewer for Whale Road Review since 2021. His work can be found at Night Heron Barks, Barren Magazine, River Mouth Review, The Shore, Contrary and elsewhere. You can find him on Twitter @Read_Instead and see his website jaredbeloff.com. He is a teacher who lives in Queens, NY with his wife and two daughters.