Are you in Hodgenville?
Dear Kendra Jean,
How many times, I ask,
how many times
have I chased the thought
of you,
writing you,
of catching the poem where
it cannot leave,
of knocking open the door to a grief
we all hold, our hearts
full of questions.
of catching the poem where
it cannot leave,
of knocking open the door to a grief
we all hold, our hearts
full of questions.
Are you on a path of remembrance
along a Kentucky riverbank?
How many times, I ask myself,
will I write your name in my life?Honestly, I hope I never stop,
that you are my invisible battle muse,
and this is just how it will be
and that is okay,
but I will always be curious:
where are you?
I imagine that, in leaving,
you said:
“I am done,"
and while you let out the breath,
I inhaled it to carry it with me
for terrifying eternity
as villain, as inspiration,
as a way to hold the past
that was once the present.
Are you in Slack Tongue City?
Are you in LOO-a-vul?
Are you in LOO-a-vul?
Are you happy?