turning

In Memphis, a long time ago, cold was a new

adventure of hunting on my uncle’s farm

for rabbits and squirrel, fried up by Mama

and set steaming on the kitchen table where

talk of the day’s tramp in the dead woods, icy creeks,

and hurting fingers, froze as memories I still enjoy.

It’s the first crisp day of this late autumn;

the edge of cool cuts my skin and propels

a shiver through the interior dark. Hackberry

leaves rain cankerous yellow through the shafts of

a thinning glare just now topping the mountain,

a promise of things not to come in this late hour.

This first crisp day portends something duller

than I like. Some kind of loneliness not aligned

with friends or family; the looming parties laden

with candy and gifts are not the symbols they

used to be. They do nothing to ease the pain

of a thousand cuts too shallow to see.

Reviews

[Lorry]

Pain is at least a reminder that we are still alive Vol.
Pain to younger me was the walk home after a snowball fight, with numbed fingers from taking gloves off to make snowballs, but incomprehensibly putting them back on to throw them.
Now just even the sight of snow makes my arthritis play up and I scowl at winter, before closing the curtains and pretend it's summer... it never does quite work though!
Remember how eager we were to run back up the hill that we just sledded down to do it all again? Makes me tired just thinking about it!
Nearby village recorded the coldest night so far this year with a near minus 18!!!
I'll be back in spring, as I'm gonna give that hibernation thing a go!
See you when the icicle melts!
😃

[Vol]

Lorry,
Hey, man! Good to hear from you, again! There is a holiday malaise we are finally almost over... but minus 18 would freeze out the voices, then who would I talk to? We've had three days of snow on the ground, and much of the country is shut down these days. I am with you on the hibernation thing... I know, where I am is nothing to what you suffer up there by the Arctic circle. It must be awful to stay inside when the northern lights are out... I cannot even imagine that much dark, that much cold and wonder why anyone ever decided they should move there all those many thousands of years ago, and after they survived the first winter said, decided to STAY! My fingers and ears hurt from just reading about it! I'm praying for you to have some very cool, very LOOONG dreams, and when you wake up again, someone stoked the fire and has a good breakfast ready!
Vol

[Lorry]

I think it was my crazy Irish ancestors gathered one day and said "Follow me, I know somewhere even colder and wetter!"
Billy Connolly once said about the Presbyterian church... "all those doom-mongers telling us though shall not. We are a nation of men who wear skirts. We f****n' shall pal! 😃

[Vol]

Lorry,
Damn STRAIGHT! Don't f with us! we'll throw a telephone pole at your a*s!
Vol

[Lorry]

😃 😊 😀 😄 😁

[John the Baptist]

The last lines remind me of Faulkner's observation that the past is not over; it's not even past.

[Poetic Beauty]

The autumn and winter seasons can be difficult for people and make them depressed. Then add in the lack of family around the table for Sundays dinners and bare holiday tables make the season almost unbearable and dreary.

[Stella Armour]

"Pain is invisible" to those who do not share the same sort of grief ......

[Vol]

Stella,
I think about that quite often/ Nobody feels anyone else's pain, and even their sympathy s gone as soon as they go on their way, they sympathize, they might even give succor, but when they are alone, they aren't thinking of your inablity to cross the room for a drink of water.

[Stella Armour]

I have had more surgery than most people plus cancer in my life Vol, but that is not that pain that destroys;
It is the emotional and very personal pain that cuts deepest and thoughts can be very debilitating , it's a very lonely place to be... 😢

[Vol]

Stella,
You speak of the things that make us poets...
Vol