A Long Ride back to Ottumwa
By Kristin Gilchrist
October 3, 2007
Flower me in the Day Lily underbelly,
but briefly because the alley is busy
between those of us scraping the fence
and those of you calling it a labor
of love—like flame like fire,
I'm glad that's not me
smoking the boundaries.
Passengers flap this by on Lucas
on gameday, an intergalatic highway
painted into our yard prepared for you
with unseasonal sweat motivating down
the stone alley and rounding the corner
to the new white fence you can see
from blocks away. You are drunk
from your Huck and Tom genius,
passionately applied like another major
development in the landscape that has
stopped just for a while
before the blank defeat and long ride
back to Ottumwa.
About the author:
I am currently exploring the world with my young daughter, and when time permits, it is always great to fix up this very old, and sometimes inspiring, house!
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