[Carl Copeland]

It’s hard to make Michigan mysterious for someone who grew up there, but I love how you’ve done it. I love the deceptive simplicity and childlike wonder, expressed so beautifully by the anapestic ballad form—a favorite of mine. One metrical glitch for me is “and I grew up just south,” which might have worked as two anapests later in the poem, but comes off here as three iambs. (The phrasal verb “grew up” is naturally stressed on “up.”)

Three more trifling nits:

- Lowercase “From” in the title.

- Fix the typo “avacado.” (And aren’t you Brits supposed to spell “molded” with a “u”?)

- Add a comma after “years.”

I love “diving down the sofa” to bring up “ghosts and galaxies.” I wondered whether the N had been smoking or stained his hands on cigarette butts swallowed by the sofa, but that hardly matters.

I’m enchanted, Mark.