TREADWHEEL

At first you did not guess, could not
          imagine how
It waited in the shadows. Caught,
          forsaken now,

You were encircled, made to climb
          an undertow
That never ceased. Brought there each time
          and pinioned so,

You came to see how that slow grind
          of hidden gears
That lifted you had made you blind
          to all their fears.

Jared Carter is the author of five books of poetry. A sixth collection, Darkened Rooms of Summer, is forthcoming from the University of Nebraska Press. Carter’s first book, Work, for the Night Is Coming, received the Walt Whitman Award. He is the recipient of a number of national awards and honors since then, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts.