Lumberjack

 

 

 

 

 (for Jack Dobbs)

 

    pinoak

    hackberry

    bitternut

    blackgum

 

You planted the stand of timber

perhaps the tree itself . . .

ripping the green silence

with your hands

the blue cloud

of gasoline

wires talked to the sky

you did not listen

 

You brought the tree down

the wires talking a blue streak

their red tongues

scolding the chokeberry

the ground alive

with the snake that bit you

that lit up your face

blue and talking to God.

 

Jeannine Dobbs has a Ph.D. from the University of New Hampshire and has taught writing and ESOL there and elsewhere. Her poems have won, placed, or showed in a number of recent contests.