Always at the Ohio

My poem a day challenge is finished and what a ride it was. A lot of fun at times and rather grueling at others. While I will not be writing a poem a day it is still my goal to write at least one a week. So keep checking up, because I'll continue updating this.

Always at the Ohio
November 7, 2009

It seems every time I cross this deep, grey water I ponder
how many black bodies lay on the floor of the Ohio River,
children in their fathers’ arms or still curled
in their mothers’ bellies, death
at their heals and freedom only a river away.

And they jumped for their dignity, their sanity,
because it turns out they were human
after all, and they knew death was more life than captivity,
here where the battle between North and South
began long before 1861. And I bet Ohio
never looked so good as it did then from the shores
of frozen Kentucky in the dead of winter
and death never looked so daring
in the chilled River Jordan where a perilous baptism
arbitrarily doled out freedom or a dark watery grave.

They’re just bones, now, some washed with the current
to the Mighty Mississippi along the banks of the prisons
they died to never see again, while others lay buried,
deep now, in the sediment of this River Jordan,
their bare bones, their fingers eternally reaching for salvation
toward the sands of Cincinnati

where I stand, 150 years later, my white
feet along the shore, looking out over a nameless cemetery
of lost generations whose lives were in chains
and whose freedom came in death but whose memory
lives forever in the watery territory
that still divides the North and the South to this day.

week four: chocolate pudding

Week four. New poem. This may not be suitable for little children... ;)

Chocolate Pudding
October 29, 2009

running my tongue along the edge of the spoon,
the smooth fluff of pudding lifts as eiderdown
between my closing lips, the feathery light chocolate
tantalizing my taste buds, warming in my mouth before slipping like silk
down my throat.

and I stroke the tip of my tongue
along the back of the silver slope, one brush of pudding
at a time before one last turn when I slowly sweep for the last traces
of chocolate in the hollow of that lucky spoon
then dip it down into the shallow bowl,
and begin again.

Something I Remembered Today

It's week four now and a new poem will come up soon, but here is a revision of the one from last week:

Something I Remembered Today
October 20, 2009
revised October 28, 2009

We gathered on the carpet every day
to watch her read, or was it twice a week
(for how should I recall such old details?)
and cross-legged we sat enwrapped in awe
of words that painted worlds for little brains.
We whispered of the pictures we’d create
and watercolor with our fingertips.
Except that one day when the wall rang.
And when she picked the phone up off the hook
she wept at what came from the other end.
We sat so still with nothing much to say—
for we were only five.

Turns out you died.
But I don’t recall your name
and I can’t call back your face
and I can see you in our class photo
but can’t point out which boy is you.
Cause what can we remember in the year
when we were five?

Except for this—my Kindergarten memory.

a memory from long ago

I was reading some poetry last night and like a lot of poetry goes it talked some about death and for some reason, it stirred up a memory from a long time ago. This memory pops into my head randomly now and then and at the strangest times. Even more interesting is that years later, I found out what happened to this kid's family after this. They fell victim to statistics. Sad.

Something I remembered today
October 20, 2009

We were sitting on the floor, or maybe
at our mini desks (how should I remember
such an old detail?) when she
picked up the phone on the wall,
ringing in the middle of class,
and she wept at the words on the other end.
We didn’t have much to say—after all
we were five.

Turns out you died. But I
don’t remember your name
and I don’t remember your face,
because what do we remember
when we’re five?

Except I remember this about Kindergarten.

as love poems go

Week three, so here's another poem, and it's not about anyone (sadly) so don't be getting any ideas.

“As love poems go”
October 19, 2009

As love poems go
you’re sort of a weird one, with
your devious smile and that wink you do.
And that’s all I have to say about that.