Talking to D-Bob's Poem

Talking to my California Hat Band bandmate Dylan Freude's award-winning 2010 poem "Catechism in Lord Dear."

What is it about peanuts,

cotton, dogwood, pine needles,

magnolias, and sweet tea

(The lovers sat quietly,

but the porch light is turned off

as I return with beers, they're

not so quiet) that makes rain

-- plat, splat, clat -- seem so much

like an Iowa sunrise

in early June, light shining

over modest-breasts-like hills

and corn fields to Des Moines?

(Because, if You said I Am,

I'd say, I Am, too. If you

said, I hear church bells ringing

I'd say, I hear church bells ring

ring ring ring ring ring ring

ringing! From those modest hills

to the Carolina ocean,

I'd hear those bells ringing, but

the lovers and the flowers, too!)

When the music pours out doors,

trumpet goes, a woman cries,

law books read, some coffee

drank, crescent moon shines through clouds

and it's the Sunday before

Easter, you can tell, the street

is washed clean -- pagans chose

holidays so well -- and I'll

then, maybe, try to answer

your question (but I'll be more

sure tomorrow as desert

tortoises grow older, I Am,

too).

Raleigh, NC

3-26-2012