I: Riddles
A woman from Virginia meets
A man from West Virginia.
They wed in Maryland, and together
They make a Pennsylvanian.
Curious, how
The somber blue river and the
Strict gray river when blended
Create an amiable
Green torrent, which
Rambles through the hills
Talking to itself
Until it runs itself out in the Tidewater.
It never returns to the mountains.
II: The Facts
All his life he will be loved.
All his life he will yearn for rivers
All his life—
III: Ode
Dark cliffs dive directly into
The river, golden and rocky;
Divots and pools like honey pots
For floating, face to the sun,
Weightless in worship.
IV: Sounds
A train heads west, singing,
A train heads east, howling.
The guns salute,
Bracketed by bellows.
Birds startle off their branches
And cry.
V: Evidence of a Crime
The cracked window allows
The warmthless March light in.
A pistol shot echoes down the years
To a wife’s screams,
As scarlet blossoms upon linen.
VI: Bookcovers
Along the streets in serried rows
The faces of houses
Red brick, blue stone, white wood
Handsome book covers to conceal family secrets.
At dawn in the armory a rebel is hung.
(A gilt-edged page asks: Did he deserve it?)
VII: Tryst
Down by the river willows,
Beneath the old wall
The branches arch,
And slants of sunshine
Light upon ferns and shallows.
Tokens taken, tokens given.
Hands brush, feather light.
A little bundle,
Sweet rose, aster, and daisy,
Tuck together in a crevice.
VIII: Eschatos
Stone steps climb
Stitching the layers together, like
Seams in a crazy quilt.
All lead, remorseless, to the grassy,
Hilltop, broke-tooth cemetery.
IX: What Came After
One robin’s blue egg,
Apples from a gnarled old tree,
The ruined church filled with wildflowers,
Each ensures, all promise:
The story will not end.
Shelley K. Davenport is a published fiction writer and poet. She lives and writes in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania—the Paris of Appalachia, a most uncanny city. You can find her at www.shelleykdavenport.com.