Zachary Bos
Two poems from Zachary Bos’s Houndsditch
followed by a note on the author
Peaches
Late fruit lies hidden fallen off the boughs
among the bines of creeping vetch & blades
of yellow nutsedge, bruised and ruptured.
Where the furred skins have split open, mauve
hornets swarm the gold dragées of nectar.
A grey gilt of mildew coats the wet honeycrust
of decay; silver dew dries on small webs.
The hungry black-haired bees, hastened
by fear, visit and revisit the last flowers
to hector and harrow, gleaning sweetness.
The summer moths knit themselves into tight
bark crevices, pleat their wings, ease into
dormancy. The bees shiver on their combs,
measuring their stores, murmuring moris.
Zachary Bos
A Dream of Reward
Mud daubers labor on the stone lintel
above the chapel window. Their lance-tip
jaws champ soil into mortar. Their vibrissae
shape and smooth. Each pipe of clay conceals
a chain of sealed chambers; inside each cell
rests a meal of paralyzed spider and one
white egg waiting to burst open, blackbodied,
blue-winged, brutal. Perhaps
I too could transform. Turn saintly. Become
the sort of man who leaves crumbs of meat
on the stone sash to feed the masons.
Perhaps they to show thanks will chew away
my raw vêtements, and bring dust and spit
to beatify (finally) and reflesh my bones.
Zachary Bos
Zachary Bos studied poetry in the graduate workshops at the Boston University Creative Writing Program. His poetry, criticism and translations have appeared in publications including Berfois, The Christian Science Monitor, Route Two, The Bosphorus Review of Books, Noble / Gas Qtrly, Dappled Things, Public Pool, Elsewhere, Lotus-Eater, Istok, Morning Star, and Fallujah. He was named a semifinalist in the Discovery Poetry Contest organized by the Unterberg Poetry Center and in the Disquiet Literary Prize competition organized by Disquiet International. A prolific editor in the little magazine press, he formerly served as Deputy Editor of the magazine News from the Republic of Letters, founded by Keith Botsford and Saul Bellow, and has been an editor, reader or production team member with magazines including The Battersea Review, The Charles River Journal, Fulcrum, Hawk & Whippoorwill, 66: The Journal of Sonnet Studies, and Outlook Springs. As the coordinator of the Boston University BookLab project, he supervises the publication of periodicals including the literary magazines Clarion, Burn, and Stonefence Review, the translation journal Pusteblume, and an annual journal for feminist and intersectional thought, Hoochie Reader. Zachary lived for a period while growing up in Paterson, NJ, where he is taken to understand that his grandmother went to grade school with Allen Ginsberg (though this impression has not yet been substantiated). He now lives in Central Massachusetts with his wife and their small dog. He recently signed a lease for a retail space in the city of Fitchburg which will house Bonfire Bookshop (@bonfirebookshop) and the editorial office for Pen & Anvil Press (@penandanvil). He can be found on social as @zakbos.