“Here I am in the reservation of my mind.”
Adrian C. Louis
Screams drown the sound of fist on face.
It takes a cross country drive for the bruises to fade;
a smack in Albany, cigarette burns in Toledo,
a broken arm in Tulsa.
There was snow in Flagstaff,
temperature 106 in Phoenix.
In a place called Needles an old man with
brown skin, more wood than leather,
stared at me as I fingered the sandstone
figures of wolf, raven, buffalo. There were
questions about pictures on hides and bark,
answers stopped short by a jerk of the arm,
“Don’t talk to these people” hissed in an ear.
“Can I go to the bathroom?”
“Hurry up and go.”
Walking past the old man, “There is a spirit
following you. Do not let them chase it away.”
…the first hint I was switched at birth.
…the first hint there was something more….
A few hard knocks and a little bit of magic have made me the writer I am today.
Poetry on the run 
I liked this Ron, very inventive. >KB
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Thanks KB…the poem was deleted from the list, thanks for reading it anyway.
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heavy…familiar…is this a re-write? miss reading you…i’ve got some catching up to do. beautiful work as always, though…
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hello there, nice to hear from you. How is everything with you? yes it is a rewrite…I am stuck in neutral lately so I have been doing a lot of editing and rewriting…so you may recognize some of these from the past.
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hits close to home and does so very well…with dignity. your writing never ceases to amaze. am well. too much of what i don’t want to do. hehe…i guess that’s being grown up. i’m exploring my options…looking into a second adolescence…
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ha. had a few hard knocks along the way myself…and i guess in some way they played into the writer i am today…and the heart behind them…mysterious piece…the spirit following you…that the old man can see it…would leave me with so many questions…
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ooh, the old man can see your muse? i’d be creeped out… a few hard knocks huh? I can relate… that’s what it’s about… turning those hard knocks into soft pen presses on paper
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what a wise poem – and very polished. It makes me sad because my daughters and I have driven across country through the Rez and it can be such a joy.
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thank you. it is beautiful country with a history that inspires some great poets like Adrian C. Louis and Sherman Alexie
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The beginning of the poem smacks of abuse and violence. Very unsettling.
People have hard lives but it is the only life we have so we must find glimpses of joy and roses in it and cling to it. This poem made me sad.
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Love what you have hidden within the mysteries of hard knocks…. they can inspire well, yet mold beyond the imagination when placed with pens. Nice to get to know you.
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Thank you very much…nice to meet you also.
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Ever find your real parents 🙂
What list did you mean when you said deleted?
Is this the moment you remember as a catalyst?
I can see the jerking movement of the person in charge of you.
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The real ones turned out to be quite nice 🙂
There was a mistake with my link and Anthony had to delete it.
It represents experiences that have influenced me and my poetry, it is not just a moment in time, it is my life, metaphorically speaking, that informs/shapes my poetry.
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You have mad it beautiful……… and yes we have to think when people say do this do that and all………………..
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A creative write.
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Hi Ron, I think sometimes the hard knocks find their way into poetry. It is good to think that out of them can come something beautiful, given a bit of time.
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I vaguely remember getting smacked in Albany once, and I’m reasonably sure that I deserved it. If this is what results from hard knocks and magic, I’m not agin’ it.
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of the handful of things I’m agin’, a well deserved slap is not among them. Thanks for reading this stuff.
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I enjoyed all the texture and description in your poem
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I like this a lot… starts out as a road movie.. then the magic of the old man.. and a conclusion on the bruises forming you as poet… love it ron.
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framed so well with the initial quote. each one of these pens is a way for that spirit to peek out, isn’t it? ~
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I am amazed and humbled by some the stories I’ve read.
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Guard, and treasure, that spirit–from what I’ve read of your work, it’s done well by you.
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how cool is that… so is this true…? did it really happen like this.? wow… that is magical indeed
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Thanks Claudia, as for being switched at birth – that remains a mystery I have yet to solve. 😉
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