One of These Days
Richard Widerkehr
The trees are going to walk out of their world
into ours. They’ve seen how we get peevish
after a succession of sunny days, how we
ask God for explanations, or an excuse.
The trees, which give us everything--
light and leaves, shadows in the heat--
what will they say when we show them
our staircases, houses that can’t see heaven?
Must we tell them how sometimes
we grow harsh in our search for beauty
and meaning? Not to mention how we
cut thousands of board-feet of lumber
and, like a generalissimo, light cigars
on the first rainy day.
Richard Widerkehr earned his M.A. from Columbia University and won two Hopwood first prizes for poetry at the University of Michigan. He has two book-length collections of poems: The Way Home (Plain View Press) and Her Story of Fire (Egress Studio Press), along with two chapbooks. Tarragon Books published his novel, Sedimental Journey, about a geologist in love with a fictional character. Recent work has appeared in Rattle, Floating Bridge Review, Gravel, Sweet Tree Review, and Cirque, Other poems are forthcoming in Measure, Arts & Letters, Naugatuck River Review, and Mud Season Review. He’s worked as a writing teacher and, later, as a case manager with the mentally ill. He co-edits poetry for Shark Reef Review. His new book, In The Presence Of Absence, will come from MoonPath Press in 2017.