The third in a series of Lineage Poems: Welcomed by the Land- A Father Returns Home. My father left Hancock County Ohio after the war and barely looked back. But when he died in 1986, there was a plot waiting for him there. A farmers’ cemetery tucked among the cornfields, rows of family names eroding into nothing up a small hill. Later, my mother would join him there, but this poem is about his journey home. And the Redwing Blackbirds in the fields, and the ribbon of asphalt leading there. About an Oldsmobile, and the memories of a boy, now a no longer young man.
Click here for the first poem in the Lineage Series: https://oldbonesnewsnow.com/2022/01/09/a-joyful-noise-root-music-of-the-heartland/
Click here for the second poem in the Lineage Series: https://oldbonesnewsnow.com/2022/01/16/on-the-way-to-heaven-2nd-lineage-poem-over-ohio/
A Father Returns Home:
redwing blackbirds
redwing blackbirds flash like fire in the sun, the Olds sailing and sailing over waves of blacktop clicking past fenceposts, the boy peering from the back seat trying to count but it’s too fast to keep up such a small hole for a man that size tough to fit eternity into a space like that maybe space like time is collapsed by death they say at the margin space and time are the same thing. tell me, if you could choose would you disappear in order to last forever? maybe it’s better to spread yourself out catch the wind and let it swirl you as ashes straight to heaven. or maybe get an Olds hold the jar out the window and go sailing over waves of blacktop pop the cork and stream out the long dusty cloud that’s now filling your mirrors as you drive catching now on the wind, filling the sky until the sun itself goes black until the redwing blackbirds disappear © 2022 jafink/oldbonesnewsnow.com
I want to thank you for writing and sharing these, Jeff. You may recall that your poem “that I would do better” touched a deep chord in me. As you appreciate, a certain age brings with it a consciousness of the past, those with whom we shared it, and the nature of our path to the present. Consciousness, but not necessarily understanding. Your offerings help me along my way to the latter.
Hunter- thanks so much for the careful read and the kind words. True that the light changes on the far side of the hill. Hopefully darkness doesnt fall too quickly
I love that you are writing this series. It’s wonderful to read. And to write … ?
Mary-
Most of these we written some tome ago, so it’s really assembling a story from older work. Rather emotional to revisit some of these older pieces. Thanks again
Most Excellent.
Thanks Bryan, appreciate you taking the time to read and comment