North Country Life

I
The horizon line
Lived among us
Somewhere between
The river & the plain
It loomed large & loud
As if it held a promise
As if it held something new

II
Sugar beets
Fresh from the fields
Fell as silent
As the farmers who mothered them
Both were tougher
Than you’d think
Dirt clinging to their ruddy skins
As if birthed
From the same womb

III
Winter
Owns this zone
Freezing every grievance
Slinging arrows at the sun
Sending it into hiding
Stripping/ripping
Elm trees became naked babies
Glacial winds stung

IV
Cuddled in supper’s hour
Warmed by poems/spoken as prayers
Little voices
Mumbling & stumbling
Through the many choices
Birches
Or
Mending Wall
Or
The Road Not Taken

V
Yet the day
Remained
Unforgivingly gray

VI
Upstream
Along the river’s edge
In the oldest home
Rotted by flood
With too little paint
A young one died from TB
Another ran to swim
A homerun away
Broke his neck
While diving into his dreams

VII
The river ran north
Away from us
Long before TB,
Baseball
& 
The wading pool