The Border

Rating:
Summary: Rattan writes with a robust imagination
Review: The Border showcases the poetry and lyrical style of Cleatus Rattan, a former academician (he recently retired from the English Department at Cisco Community College) and a Texas rancher (a hundred miles west of Fort Worth near the small Bible Belt community of Cisco). Rattan writes with a robust imagination, a compelling sense of humor, and an artist's eye for detail that readers will find as entertaining as it is thoughtful and thought provoking. In Cisco, Texas: Here, no one comes to visit/to see the sights. In San Francisco,/well scrubbed guests arrive at the door,/bags in hand, sheepish smiles/on their faces, with plans to scamper/in well known directions. Fewer friends/arrive now, but those who come/have no plans, their hands reach/for the dog's head. They see sheep,/mesquite, scrub oak, the smile/on my face, and stars meandering/to nowhere known.