Prick of the Spindle: Poetry: Thompson: Here There

© Cynthia Reeser, 2009

Here/There
By Don Thompson

Anyone unchurched in rural Kansas
                                    had to be suspect
            especially with International red nails
                        in John Deere territory
                                    no children either
            only a close friend
fried by lightning in her front yard

And a shamanistic fetish collection
                                    of elephant figurines
            illuminated by
            faint votive glow in a glass case

Numinous kitsch
A cult of not yet illegal ivory
                                    slightly jaundiced
            glazed ceramic green and yellow
                        blood mist red
            translucent infinite indigo
                                    crystal novas
still burning in recollection

What did I begin to worship
                        breathless in Aunt M's parlor
            while Mom and Dad finding refuge in the kitchen
                                    smoked and
            tossed back shots of whiskey
                        to keep from going Midwestern demented

Don Thompson lives with his wife on a farm in the southern San Joaquin Valley of California and teaches in a nearby prison. He has been publishing poetry since the early sixties. Recent chapbooks are Turning Sixty from March Street Press, Sittin' on Grace Slick's Stoop from Pudding House, and the summer 2009 publication, Where We Live, from Parallel Press. Back Roads, from Hill-Stead Museum, is the winner of its 2008 Sunken Garden Poetry Contest.