"Leaving After Dark"
By Matt Smythe
There’s a moment when
the sound of my footsteps on gravel,
and the creak of my pack,
and the hugeness of breath in the fields
and night in its soaking weight
all go away-
when, like color leaving a face, moonlight drains
from the road, the thin grass, the low yawning hills-
when the owl
swoops in giant flight
to snatch a mouse and I feel and hear
the roiling air,
the thump of their meeting-
when I am,
and with eyes closed,
begin to hum something quiet to myself.
Matt Smythe hails from the Finger Lakes region of western New York. An Army veteran and lifelong outdoorsman, Matt suffers from an inability to sit still. If he’s not in the woods, or on the water, he’s scheming ways to get there. His work has appeared in Free Range American, Gray’s Sporting Journal, the Fly Fish Journal, The Drake, Southern Culture on the Fly, Revive, Midcurrent, TROUT Magazine, and a handful of other non-outdoors-related magazines and literary journals. He recently published a book of poetry with Dead Reckoning Collective titled Revision of a Man, where this poem first appeared.
What’s happening at VetRep…
VetRep is thrilled to present “God of Carnage” by Yazmina Reza for the month of September. A playground altercation between eleven-year-old boys brings together two sets of Brooklyn parents for a meeting to resolve the matter. At first, diplomatic niceties are observed, but as the meeting progresses, and the rum flows, tensions emerge and the gloves come off, leaving the couples with more than just their liberal principles in tatters.
Tickets have been selling out, reserve yours before they’re gone!
We are currently offering multiple dates for our online and in-person Playwriting for Veterans classes, and our Acting for Beginners class is now being offered weekly every Saturday from 10am-12pm. Scholarships for qualifying veterans, as well as multi-class passes are available. Registration details can be found here.