Picking things up & putting
them down is different in
the presence of the dead.
Sound & echo part company.
An 8th day is added to the week.
Try pretending that no one has
a claim on you, like sunlight
resting on a meadow
agitated by wind. Try
going bump in the night.
The dead listen without hearing
& watch without having to see—
they’re ideal witnesses.
We’re making more of them
as quickly as we can.
I live in an Appalachian hollow in the Juniata watershed of central Pennsylvania, and spend a great deal of time walking in the woods. Here’s a bio. All of my writing here is available for reuse and creative remix under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. For attribution in printed material, my name (Dave Bonta) will suffice, but for web use, please link back to the original. Contact me for permission to waive the “share alike” provision (e.g. for use in a conventionally copyrighted work).
Wow. Yes.