Here are two wonderfully evocative poems Hiram sent us. They may be carefully crafted, but they certainly aren’t fragile.
Dig in:
___
Radio
That was so long ago that it’s hard to pinch —
Whole hills have turned the other way in the meantime
Most babies who left home have come back driving already
and the trees from then are now two-by-fours.
So why bother with such things that should be forgotten?
Why let years ago get to me?
Why oh why can the turned up sounds
of an every so often mouth
spook me?
I’ll tell you why —
Because this curly damn morning’s crackle
That’s why
What was said so oozy sounded like a ghost
and slipped me right back to when
My heart had just barely started
It grabbed me by my surelys
and took me back to the days
I was as spilled in love as a glass of milk.
___
In the Next Room Over
I’ll bet you whatever you want
That she won’t make it through the week
and that’s not being dreary
That’s just being clear –
So anything out loud she says pay attention
But especially do if you hear her coughing
or if you smell doom in the hay
or hear some water swirling
because she’s preparing
Trust me
Long long ago when things were simple
as that finger in your ear
She was as godly in person as smoke is next to skin
pure as poured milk
the fullest of apples
That was then
Now the situation is like gaspy fish —
and the need to aver deeply is with us
And will you just look at this little frame –
There we were once
Posed under a tree
Lined up like sparrows
She was the robin —
I tell you that a cool damp word is the very least we can
do
for her now.
___
Larew’s poems have popped up recently in The New Ulster, Voices Israel, Amsterdam Quarterly, Contemporary American Voices and vox poetica. His fourth collection, Undone, was published in 2018 by FootHills Publications. On Facebook at Hiram Larew, Poet and Poetry X Hunger.