My poem “Dig,” from the manuscript for High Ashes, appears in the Winter 2026 issue (Volume 69, Number 1) of the magazine Nimrod, alongside fiction by Talia Neffson, poems by Shane McRae and Rachel Hadas, and much else beside. Learn more about this excellent magazine here.

Dig 


You’ll dig your hole with teaspoons, thimbles, pins. 
Get started soon. It’s going to take a while. 
You get an inch and then the rain begins. 
You dig a year and make a little pile. 

At least the music’s pretty good. It ends
When digging stops. You want to dance, but then
It’s silence all around, and that just sends
You back to dig the endless earth again.  

The hole is big enough to hold your foot.
You take a break. You’ve done enough. It’s earned. 
Or so you hope. You wonder where you put
The pin. The rain is gone. The sun has burned

Your face, then clouds, and then cold rain again. 
You free a worm. You pull it out and throw
It on the pile. It wriggles in, and when
You look again, it’s gone where you will go,

Beneath the heavy world you learned to love,
To join the ones who dug before, those who,
With care, taught you to dig while here above,
As if it’s all you’re really born to do.

From the magazine: Since its founding in 1956 at The University of Tulsa, Nimrod has shared with its readers exciting new writing from around the world. Nimrod is published twice a year. Each issue features a stimulating selection of poetry, short fiction, and nonfiction, including work in translation. Selections from Nimrod have been included in The Best American Short Stories, Best Stories from the South, New Voices in American Fiction, Best New Poets, Best American Poetry, and many other noted anthologies.

From the very beginning, Nimrod has attracted original work from such renowned writers as W. H. Auden, Mahmoud Darwish, Natalie Diaz, Mark Doty, Rita Dove, S. E. Hinton, Sue Monk Kidd, Maxine Kumin, Stanley Kunitz, Ursula K. Le Guin, Denise Levertov, Pablo Neruda, Alicia Ostriker, Linda Pastan, Octavio Paz, Isaac Bashevis Singer, William Stafford, and Mark Strand, among many others.

Nimrod supports and defends the literary tradition of small magazines, spotlighting lesser-known poets and writers and providing foundations for their literary careers. We promote a living literature, recognizing and rewarding contemporary writing of imagination, substance, and skill.