before, NOW, after
by Ellen Rachlin

      
    A mountain rises: Carolina-blue 
    cape thick with life, 
    Sumatran tiger,
    autowalk to fresh dirt, 
    roots girding beside a river,
    melted labyrinth, 
    flask of whisky, 
    stinking prison, 
    bird-dogging throne, 
    whining magician, 
    insomniac bound under stage-lights, 
    violet god adorned with porcelain angels, 
    parallel lines of smoke. 
    
    
Packingtown Review – Vol. 24, Fall 2025

Ellen Rachlin is the author of five collections of poetry. At the Big Bang Resort is forthcoming from Red Hen Press (Spring 2027). Her most recent book, Permeable Divide, received the 2018 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Silver Award. Her novel, Enheduanna’s Song From the Sands, is forthcoming from Histria Books.

  1. Tom Laichas
    Sunday at the Art Institutepoetry