I can’t tell you whyI got out of the car, checkedfor breath, for wounds and foundinstead, the marvelof a wind-puffed tail.Like most, I’ve been pressedto nothing by a word, raisedto the moon with a kissand sliced into unknowableparts by a childhood I have yetto outgrow or leavebehind. But in the blinkered light,I surprised myself,lifting the fox into my armshis fur haunted by the tangyscents of wild mushroomsand rain-wet woods.When my childrenare asleep, I carry himthrough the houseto the woodswhere I shovelopen the earth and planthis body like a seed.Like you, I have feltmy child’s breathon my cheek—demandingand impossiblylight, like the streambehind our house, a kind ofunstoppable beauty. Each splash,each leap, a pieceof its holiness. But nevertill that fox did Ichance to touch itto take a piece for myself.
A Slouch of Red in the Road
Feature Date
Series
Selected By
Share This Poem
Print This Poem
“A Slouch of Red in the Road” from ALL IS THE TELLING: by Rosa Castellano.
Published by Diode Editions on March 1, 2025.
Copyright © 2025 by Rosa Castellano.
All rights reserved.
Reproduced by Poetry Daily with permission.
Rosa Castellano is the Literary Arts Director for Sundress Publications and co-founder of RVA Poetry Fest. Her writing appears in Poetry Northwest, Guernica, Bomb, Write or Die and Lit Hub among others. Her debut poetry collection, All is the Telling, is available now from Diode Editions. Originally from Tampa, Fl, she is happy to call Richmond, VA home.
All is the Telling is a compelling, transformative collection bridging the personal and political with an emotional intensity that lingers long after the final page. With an intimate and expansive voice, this collection speaks to the human condition in all its beauty and complexity, inviting readers to reflect on their own lives as they are drawn into the intricate web of memory, identity, and survival. The speaker’s voice is grounded in the immediacy of lived experience, yet it also reaches outward, echoing the broader struggles of our time. In a world that can often feel fractured, the poems in All Is The Telling offer a space for connection, reflection, and healing. Readers are invited to witness moments of profound emotional truth, where the boundaries between self and other, past and present, blur in disorienting and revelatory ways.
At its core, All is the Telling is a meditation on what it means to be human in a world that often demands silence from those who dare to speak their truths. It is a collection that insists on the importance of voice, of telling and retelling our stories so they are not forgotten. The collection’s emotional landscape is vast, encompassing themes of love, loss, survival, and the enduring power of storytelling itself. These poems remind us that survival is not simply to endure but to carry forward the stories that define us and to give voice to the histories that have shaped our identities, often against the odds.
This is a collection for readers who crave poetry that speaks to the soul—poetry that does not flinch in the face of brutal truths but instead transforms them into something beautiful, something that can be held, examined, and, ultimately, shared. All is the Telling will resonate with anyone who has ever grappled with the complexities of identity and sought to make sense of a world that can be both brutal and tender. It is a collection that asks us to listen—to ourselves, to each other, to the world, and in that listening, find the strength to tell our own stories. For anyone who believes in the power of words to shape lives, challenge injustices, and celebrate the human spirit, this collection will not disappoint. All is the Telling is vital, alive, and endlessly resonant.
Poetry Daily Depends on You
With your support, we make reading the best contemporary poetry a treasured daily experience. Consider a contribution today.
