New Time by Acie Clark

Acie Clark is one of the warmest and kindest people I have ever met, and I am so blessed to share work from his upcoming book, Small Talk, with you today. It's a pleasure to have Acie kick off our Spring 2026 edition of dogyard, and we're grateful to you, dear reader. Catch us out of our yard and out in Baltimore for AWP this week, talk soon? 

If you love this poem as much as I do, consider preordering Acie's book from Hub City, link attached below. <3

Submit some work today! We'd love for you to be a dog too! Follow us on Bluesky and Instagram! All love, always. Thanks for supporting us and we hope you enjoy your stay in the yard.

New Time

Yesterday's coffee is today's coffee because there are bills to pay but a little sugar left

First night means it is dark and we are hungry now

Rain washes the salt from the snow, dozens of robins gather to say

winter will end but there will always be more hunger

There’s still time to love what we lost, lost as it is

out there where we go to have been

what we will be when we are

once again there where we were

when it was all about to happen

There’s still time to admit we have not done enough to save anyone

It must be morning because you say so and the dog hears and joins us on the bed

I think it’s time we meet each other's daughter

Cherrie, I still dream of all we might still heal from

Acie Clark is a writer from Florida and Georgia. A former writing fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, he teaches in the Film, Theatre, and Creative Writing department at the University of Central Arkansas and as an Instructor at Interlochen Center for the Arts. His debut collection, Small Talk, was selected by Derrick Austin for the Hub City Press New Southern Voices Poetry Prize and will be published in 2026. His work is forthcoming in Quarterly West, Salamander, I Witness: An Anthology of Documentary Poetry, and Best New Poets 2025.

Preorder Acie's book, Small Talk, from Hub City here.

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