East Windsor

aubade with factory ruins
by Aanum Khan, East Windsor Youth PL


Scantic River State Park is home to the ruins of a gunpowder mill.


I think the vines took me before the fire. I think

we were swallowed by the stained-glass starry

night before dawn came—the bubbles of last


night & the flatness of this morning’s sugar-syrup

poison. But, it’s not the choking embrace of vines

turning to veins turning to soul—it’s the morning


now. Sunshine beats down on ashes turned to dust

turned to tomorrow’s dream fodder & I stare through

the ruins of yesterday’s up-and-down labor. Hear the


past like fire like burn like shot like star expelled across

sky & wonder—comfortable in our new reality / it is

a new year after all—if we will be like the bullet


in the ground, too: made to maim & maimed by

the earth.

CCPL is a group of state and local poets laureate in Connecticut.
The mission of the Connecticut Council of Poets Laureate (CCPL) is to promote the enjoyment of poetry and be a resource for communities.