A Sentence or Two
To my first wife:
Just past teens when hitched
by my uncle priest. You, the
oldest of nine brothers
on a tobacco farm, had
a knack for being the boss
and I, an emergent slug
from six years of seminary, had
a knack for following holy orders.
The early days like dressing
on a salad, trying out different
flavors until we settled
on log cabin in the wilderness
with two babies (boys of course).
What words could describe how
we survived the blizzard of ‘78?
After that there was lots of thunder
blunder and a flashy rain that washed
away what we had.
Easy now to account for 2 decades
with a sentence or two. We’re country
neighbors and tip our heads when
we pass on the road.
14 thoughts on "A Sentence or Two"
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Beautiful.
Absolutely beautiful.
Oldest was the only thing that tripped me up. Maybe elder.
I love the relatively brief last verse, it adds a lot. I have a parallel situation. It lasted longer than a practice marriage but, goodness, we learned more than a few lessons. We don’t hate each other.
actually quite revealing.
without feeling ‘gushy’
love the association
assigned to the blizzard.
That last stanza wrecked me,
👏👏👏
gorgeous
That last stanza. Damn. This is a great piece.
What a beautiful homage to life lived and living.
Oh, this is wonderfully said!
Damn, you can write!!
and I, an emergent slug
from six years of seminary, had
a knack for following holy orders.
The early days like dressing
on a salad, trying out different
flavors
Love the weather and setting mirroring the marriage –
It’s been awesome to read your work again this year!
I remember the blizzard of 78. And I agree with Sylvia above.
That nodding as they pass — such a telling, revealing line. Love this, Jim.
Loved the lyricism and line of “an emergent slug/from six years of seminary, had/a knack for following holy orders” and the compressed economy of that final stanza. You’re the consummate storyteller.
Loved the images of the first stanza, especially these lines:
I, an emergent slug
from six years of seminary, had
a knack for following holy orders.
The early days like dressing
on a salad, trying out different
flavors until we settled
on log cabin in the wilderness
But that compact last stanza took my breath away.