BLUEPEPPER: New Poetry by JD DeHart

If I Had Only One Pen

I would write your story large,

of living by the railroad tracks,

mother gone too young,

father hunched up in tradition,

and pain,

a back injury, coal dust spelling

your future with dried fingers.

A husband who would

crawl under trains. Sons who

would live most comfortably

among trees and beside springs,

listening to the voices of creeks,

wisdom spilling like water

like the pounds, even tons

of care you give.

JD DeHart is a writer and teacher. His most recent poetry collection, A Five-Year Journey, is available from Dreaming Big Publications.

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