Poem 9, June 9

There are stories

There are stories about my sister’s house

being haunted by Aunt Rose

& a demonic presence with no name.

There are stories in Oak Grove, Kentucky

about the spirit of a wife, forever walking a bridge

seeking answers as to why her husband,

a soldier, killed her and their child.

There are no stories about an abandoned

Kentucky cemetery in Clinton County,

but there is a picture of a soldier taken in the cemetery

early on a clear day. The soldier wears a uniform

from the War of 1812. He leans on his musket,

unaware, perhaps, that it is 2015.

There is a tradition that the first poetry was a story

& that each of us is an unfinished poem.