Will It Rain?

by Joshua Polk

See how we connect. We spill our wine
on hardwood, not on carpet.

Ask questions like will it rain?
or should we sail the Pacific
in an inner tube?

Full of rusting
engine parts dead
or dying or gone.

Full of graying
atmospheres ripe
with redemption song.

Born in Baton Rouge, Joshua Polk lives in Saint Amant, Louisiana. After high school, he went to Southeastern Louisiana University for a semester, before deciding to form a rock band and tour the country for the better part of a decade. His travels led him to Los Angeles, where he spent two years rubbing elbows with the higher-ups, and to Portland, Oregon, where he finally bought an umbrella. He went back to school and graduated last year from Portland State University (where he studied under Tom Bissell and Paul Collins) with a Bachelor’s of Arts in English. He also attended the Tin House Writer’s Workshop last year, where he studied under the great poet Kevin Young, and plans to get his Master’s in Secondary Education from LSU.