This is a Myth
I. Once
upon a time, my brother-in-law lead his father’s funeral audience in a standing
ovation for his life, and kept them clapping for three minutes, everyone
cheering a dead man until their palms were numb. This was a myth.
II. Today on the river
Disorder and shrieking
A spree of reeling, reeling-in
A fish, a boy’s mongoloid face
Is wrapped in glad
Proudly stoic, unyielding
Fish wriggles dead
Fairies hover, caught
Over unfairness of birth
This, a
triumphant myth
III. Up in the North Woods, land
immense with calamity
Books of fish and recipes sit alongside A History of the Region, which has
forgotten about the people before the Germans and Norwegians and Flemish and
French.
IV. There
is a story of a girl and her little brother walking to school in the dark of
the woods when a half- bear, half-deer beast springs, tossing the boy into the
air by its antlers, then turns on the girl, who rolls back and forth below a
barbed wire fence while the beast hops over to gore her too. Old man on a hill
run down to save them both--holds onto the antlers until his skin is scraped
gone from the wrestling. Boys and girls run past the spot to this day. This is myth.
V. Daily life at the cabin, a myth:
Straight line, from griddle
To the end of the dock, its screws
Jolt into misplaced bare feet
The motorboat, ringed with rainbows
Of petrol-slick when it revs,
Is named Forget
VI. After the cocktail tour
We dock, drowsy with liquor
At sunset, watch the slow lapping
Of
our skinny lives
I approve this myth.
VII. Rains are forecast. Gather around a television. What
else to alleviate shivers of refugee hunger and foam dripping from the lips of
toddlers after Syrian barrel bombs?
Erratic breezes blow up
Skies turn frightening in an instant
Cradle your
mythos, for tomorrow we…
