Michael T. Young, Evidence of Things Unseen

Evidence of Things Unseen
Michael T. Young

At first a scratch behind the wall.
Swelling pipes? Then
streamers of insulation
behind the toilet, frayed
carpet threads near baseboard molding.

Refresh the traps, clean out
the old peanut butter bait,
green and hard in the bowls.

Rats take days to grow comfortable
with changes in the room.
But on a rainy night,
when there’s little to feed on, a snap
in the dark. In the morning, I find
the limp, mud-colored
body of our suspicions.

There’s relief, an easing of defenses,
but always less than we hope for.
More evidence leaks into the day,
seeps into the streets until I hear
a scratch behind everything:
the pavement, the stalled air settling
around the grape hyacinth, the dogwood
shading the corner, even the stop signs
that prevent nothing.

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Michael T. Young’s fourth collection, The Beautiful Moment of Being Lost, was published by Poets Wear Prada. His chapbook, Living in the Counterpoint, received the 2014 Jean Pedrick Award. He received a fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and the Chaffin Poetry Award. His work has appeared in numerous journals, including Cimarron Review, Comstock Review, The Cortland Review, and The Potomac Review. His work is also in the anthologies Phoenix Rising, Chance of a Ghost, and Rabbit Ears: TV Poems.