When
I get to the top
I
know the mountain
Is
only this high.
I am
not exceptional
So it
makes sense that
This
is my climb.
Roots
and rocks
At
seven o’clock
Each
step, each intention.
Green
beans and mayhem
Be
damned above
The
tree line.
Ghosts
dogs
Go
with me
When
I call their names.
Every
time I climb
The
past
Grows
smaller.
About to Knock
Behind the busted clapboard shack
A sea of broken lawnmowers swam
In a pine-needle gulley.
A swarm of mopeds more abandoned
Than parked in the grassless yard,
Tarpapered windows
Kept the world at length.
The finance creditor stopped
His Buick Regal by the road,
Stepped perilously through
Thistle and briar bush toward
The stepless plywood porch.
In the sun nothing stirred.
Till he stood at the door,
An expensive steel contraption
With a teardrop window,
About to knock.
There is a Green Hill Far Away
The highlight of my career
Was reading aloud
The Nelson-Denny Reading Test
To a group of five students
Whose test accommodations
Included but were not
Limited to having tests
Read aloud. The first part was
On vocabulary and
I would read a sentence with
A highlighted word and the
Four possible words that defined
It. I would pause while they made
Their guesses. Two students had
Scribes, a couple retired nurses
From the community who
Marked the Scantron sheets for their
Students. Someone usually
Had a question which slowed the
Process to a maddening
Pace. The second part required
The students to listen to
A passage and answer questions
Regarding the content. I
Read, listening to a ticking
Fluorescent light, the student
Who constantly tapped his
Knuckles on the table and
Watched the scribes wince as they blacked
The wrong answer their student
Had chosen. After three hours,
The crucifixion was finished.
I bought Cokes for each of the
Students, and they were happy
As I had ever seen them.
The Miracle
The craziest of the crazies who came
To the learning lab had to take a test
For her freshman English class to prove
Competency. She had negotiated
All the way to the school president
And been granted unlimited time for
The fifty-minute event which for her
Meant ask to stay through the entire night.
And every moment she would be hoping
For a reason to sue us. We referred
To this student as she whose name cannot
Be said because if you spoke of her, she
Would miraculously appear after an
Absence of a year or more, like the time
She asked me to help her write her story
As she had become convinced her memoir
Would be a bestseller—she had this tale
About driving her car down the road when
She was very hungry, pulling up to
A stoplight and seeing a loaf of bread
Lying beside her car—that was as far
As she could get, could draw no conclusions,
Had no idea what it meant except that
The Lord will provide. When she came to take
Her test, she started that same old story.
Maybe she would finish it as after
All, she had till the end of time, rapture
Or apocalypse, to finish the thing.
I checked on her once, by herself in the lab
As the other students did not wish to
Be near or even far as she emitted
The crazy funk of her forty or so
Years. An hour and a half in, she called
An ambulance and fainted when it drove
Up behind the building. She refused to
Leave in it and we refused to allow
Her to resume the test since her bounty
Of time did not include an ambulance
Break. I looked at her paper once she had
Left. “I was driving my car one cold day.
I was very hungry, but when I stopped
At a stoplight, I saw a loaf of bread.”
