Ron Rash Water Poems
- 1. The Men Who Raised The Dead
If they had hair it was gray,
the backs of their hands wormy
currents of blue veins, old men
the undertaker believed
... - 2. The Bridge
Barbed wire snags like briars when
fence posts rot in goldenrod,
the cows are gone, the cowpath
a thinning along the creek
... - 3. Last Service
Though cranes and bulldozers came,
yanked free marble and creek stones
like loose teeth, and then shovels
unearthed coffins and Christ's
... - 4. In Dismal Gorge
The lost can stay lost down here,
in laurel slicks, false-pathed caves.
Too much too soon disappears.
... - 5. Fall Creek
As though shedding an old skin,
Fall Creek slips free from fall's weight,
clots of leaves blackening snags,
back of pool where years ago
... - 6. Deep Water
The night smoothes out its black tarp,
tacks it to the sky with stars.
Lake waves slap the bank, define
a shoreline as one man casts
...