One Day I Will Learn . . .

—Poems by JD DeHart, Chattanooga, TN
—Anonymous Photos of Tennessee Wilderness

 

THE FATE OF OUR FOREST HOME

No more battery to combat
the incessant growth of nature,
encroaching on the old home.

At one time, little bare feet
would have patted out the upstart
grass shoots, dun earth defeated
by nothing other than play.

But the children went away, and
the adults followed after.  This is
a place of leaving, a testament
to farewells.

So, the rickety home with its
slapdash composure will soon be
swallowed by these weeds, disappearing
beneath them, blotted out.

People will get it was there to begin
with at all.

Imagine, if you will, a bottomless
restauranteur sloppily gorging himself
on buttered shrimp, chin dripping.
The world will likewise consume these
memories.

Tendrils will crawl up through
the floor boards, even in darkness,
windows will shatter mysteriously.

Hiding foxes?
Aggressive birds?
Sentient stones?

Home loses to time and change,
shaking away the muffled voices,
the susurrus of somebody else’s
forest-burdened childhood.

 
HERD INSTINCT

Hectic, they hurry across the
landscape, onward to another oasis.
This place is littered with blinking
signs and liquidation sales.

Pining for sustenance.  The distant
rumbles of some invisible predator
urge them on.  The food court has
been closed for a while now.

The predator is only in their minds.
There is no bear waiting to snatch them.
Soon, their shopping
will be done, but never really done.

Hard-scrabble, they wear the signs
of their journey, plastic bags hang on
their arms, shiny stones gathered
from the river bed of commerce wink.

A hiccup in the journey—the baby
is getting sleepy.  They do not have a list,
but imagine that there are more wares
to collect in the yawning storefronts.

Another day.

A NIGHT FOR NEIGHBORS

A slicing conflagration
that brings purity, or else a way
of filling the night air with smoke.
Later, ebony marks up the wall.

We arrange ourselves like careful
patrons on the lawn, watching the
spread of flames.  Someone should
call, if no one has.

Someone did.  Darkness is dressed
in rapid surges of blaring light,
siren sound.

Anchored in our restless search
for the next best program to fill our eyes
with, the shouts from outside woke
in us a primitive sensibility.

All of a sudden, we realized we
still had neighbors.  More than
just faceless voids who echo
hello and how-are-you emptily.

It was awkward, like realizing someone
else had been in the same room
for years, never really noticed.
Hi there, you in the corner.  What’s
your name?

Or someone had been trying to get
our attention for nearly a decade,
and we had only lolled our heads
in the air.
Oh, my.  Were you there all this time?

Suddenly, we were one.  Or at least
pretending to feel that way until
the lights were gone and we returned
to our channel-flipping routine. 

BLOOM

Something new promises
to break open.  A cracking
sound of bright fruit.

A din of conversation
and experiences erupt around
us as I debate a fried entree.

The river is nice but we are
somewhere nearby it, not fully
engaged in its path.

Today is change, but we are
steadfast.  There have many turns
in the past few years.

We will trust this mystery, take
this next on-ramp, cross the river,
dripping, exasperated, or dry.

Let’s see.

SIDELINES

From the side, I can see
the unfolding plot.  Ready
for the deus ex machina.

Any moment now.
Wait for it.

I will elaborate again
on the exposition, trace
the hero’s journey.  Draw
a picture of the landscape,
cape
or no cape.

The story is the same.

BONE TO PICK

I’ve got a bone to
pick, he said, somewhere
around 1997.

I was a kid who wanted
to make good on his
promises to God

but I didn’t know the rules
yet or how small
moments build to big ones.

I didn’t even speak
the language of faith.

I’ve still got bones to pick,
sometimes almost invisible
trout bones of worry.

They run through the seam
of my days.
One day I will learn.

__________________

Today’s LittleNip:

IN MEMORY
—JD DeHart

I only appreciated you
in our last years together.
The last months were
caring.  I hope you felt
my love.

I grew as a person because
of you in ways I didn’t
and most wouldn’t understand.
You taught me there was a game
to play

hidden somewhere in all
the serious business.  You
taught me about boundaries
and patience.

Past tense is still present
tense whenever I can speak
it so.

_____________________

Our thanks to JD DeHart for today’s fine poetry! SnakePal JD is a writer and teacher. He has a new book of poems, A Five-Year Journey, available from Dreaming Big Publications. See www.prlog.org/12729185-new-release-five-year-journey-by-jd-dehart-is-now-available.html for more info.

—Medusa

 Cover of JD's new book!

(Celebrate poetry!)

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