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Corrinne Schneider: 207 E. Nelson St.

September 9, 2022 by PBQ Leave a Comment

I went back to my father’s house – 

The old maple tree out front is dying 

The one I studied from my bedroom window 

A hardened face where the limb’s been sawed off 

 

The old maple tree out front is dying 

Bark mottled gray, as if struck by lightning 

The one I studied from my bedroom window 

I can’t remember my father as well as I remember that tree 

 

Lichen-petrified, ash gray, as if lightning-struck

The house is empty, for sale again 

I can’t remember my father as well as I remember

The sloped branch across the transom window 

 

The house is empty, for sale again 

Leaves once supple green in spring or burnt red-cold in autumn

Shadows sloping across the transom window

In photos before they had us — 

 

Supple, young, burning – 

A tree of a man, golden-brown curls

In photos before they had us — 

He looked right through that camera 

 

Bare-faced, ringed in golden-brown curls

The tree stood there too the year that he died

He looked clear through the camera Already

a ghost to me 

 

The tree held its green 

That cold week in late August 

Already a ghost 

While we packed what little we wanted 

 

Cold already, late August, the green held

We threw the rest to the curb 

Packed what little we wanted 

Piled one garbage bag after another at the trunk

Filed Under: Issue 103, Poetry, Poetry 103 Tagged With: Corrine Schneider

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