The Death of Sargon the Gardener. Poems by Reilly D. Cox, selected by Ron Mohring as Number 5 in Volume 4 of our Editor’s Series.

Publication:  January 4, 2020 [100 copies]
37 pages, 6 5/8″ x 8 1/8″
ISBN 978-1-949333-62-6
$ 9.00 + $2 shipping

The Death of Sargon the Gardener just blew us away with its originality and force of vision. This chapbook features original cover art by the poet’s brother.

Reilly D. Cox is an MFA candidate at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, where they served as Design Editor for Black Warrior Review. Born in Baltimore, they attended Washington College and the Bucknell Seminar for Younger Poets. They have two cats, one of which appeared from a sewer, and are eternally grateful to their family, from where these poems derived, and to Grace, for reading every draft and more.

Shoveling Snow

In long strips, I am showing the sky  
the ground again. I am careful, turn
it over, check what is hiding underneath.  
At the edges, the daffodils like bristles,  
their yellow heads saying This is not 
what we expected. Somewhere, the dog  
is eager to wreck his paws, hurls   
himself onto his back, makes an angel 
shaped like Armageddon. I start 
with what is necessary: the three stairs,  
the walk to the drive, a path for the tires.  
If I keep going, I worry I will wake the old man,  
now three years dead. The dog barks 
and I feel my heart stop. This is, of course,  
hyperbole: Nothing ever stops. 

–Thank you to Rust + Moth for first publishing this poem.

• Order Reilly’s chapbook here. Thank you for supporting this poet!