Hobble Creek Review
| Sandy Longhorn |
Listening for the Dead
Here, in the way of the silent Midwest,
months after the burying, we return
to the dead, alone and in secret.
We bring wreaths of purple cone flowers
woven with white shooting stars
and hang them from the low branches
to catch the light as it angles towards dusk.
We strain to hear, ears pressed against first
the fresh shoots of grass and then the trunk
of the massive bur oak shading the plot,
listening for the repeated, plaintive notes,
all on the same pitch, of the dead man
settling into the grave. Amid these wild
prairie remnants, he relaxes, gives in
to the trill his humming rises to at the end.
In life, his voice, unused for hours, was a rasp,
a sound like rocks being ground together,
but we arrive, each on her own, to listen
because in death the men of the Midwest
learn, finally, to sing.
Here, in the way of the silent Midwest,
months after the burying, we return
to the dead, alone and in secret.
We bring wreaths of purple cone flowers
woven with white shooting stars
and hang them from the low branches
to catch the light as it angles towards dusk.
We strain to hear, ears pressed against first
the fresh shoots of grass and then the trunk
of the massive bur oak shading the plot,
listening for the repeated, plaintive notes,
all on the same pitch, of the dead man
settling into the grave. Amid these wild
prairie remnants, he relaxes, gives in
to the trill his humming rises to at the end.
In life, his voice, unused for hours, was a rasp,
a sound like rocks being ground together,
but we arrive, each on her own, to listen
because in death the men of the Midwest
learn, finally, to sing.
Sandy Longhorn's first book, Blood Almanac (Anhinga Press, 2006),
won the 2005 Anhinga Prize for Poetry which was judged by Reginald
Shepherd. New poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The
American Poetry Journal, Blackbird, Copper Nickel, diode, Free Verse,
Redactions, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of an individual artist
fellowship from the Arkansas Arts Council.
won the 2005 Anhinga Prize for Poetry which was judged by Reginald
Shepherd. New poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The
American Poetry Journal, Blackbird, Copper Nickel, diode, Free Verse,
Redactions, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of an individual artist
fellowship from the Arkansas Arts Council.
| Home / About / Masthead / Submissions / Contact / Current Issue / News / Archives |
