straight ahead,
green shutters, a huge old tree
Godwin church (when god when)
behind me the family names
the place for a body to rest
its suitably grey out
I slide cold water around
between marble etched
outlines. newer grass, you can
see a shape and it seems short
but then, you were. plots and plans and standing still.
this is my place, somewhere around here.
patches of moss climbing up the
side of this one stone, is it this
that turns the other ones black
and white more stark than a photograph?
how long has it been since this net
has seen a game, it sags so heavily.
and what can be done with the netting
that held the rice we threw at the
bride? I'm on Church St. in Fincastle VA
on the way up searched the
fields for a landscape that
once hung in my dad's kitchen. my family lived here, years back
and are possibly the only people who've ever heard of this town.
its past 5 o'clock on a sunday and
5 hrs. till I get home
still, at least that
how do you stop a nervous habit
like this one
how could I possibly stop writing
while driving? its urgent.
what if the words are scattered
and gone before I get them down?
on the way back to interstate,
Happy Foodmart deserves my patronage so I stop.
they're pretty fucking jovial at Happy Foodmart,
you don't have to pay first, or lock your car.
5:30 and its dark already
I want to run from the winter
and find a road just like this to drive
all the way home.
spot a road that leads back there
Catawba 12th grade blunt rides out Catawba,
station wagon dragging its weight full of people
this morning mom surprised us with
daylight savings before breakfast
fluorescent dinner and writing in subway
'they're callin for a lot of rain'
something in these people's voices
if you didn't listen closely or understand their
language, they'd sound like banjos, played just
to pass time
the sign said Help Wanted but maybe they didn't
hear me and maybe they will take no care
I offered
back to a road, clogged w/ ruthless 18-wheelers
I rearrange my phrases and wonder if
this part of the world will ever read these words