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Friday, November 08, 2013

OUR NEIGHBOR

by  Hannah Thomassen


Image credit: cascoly2 / 123RF Stock Photo


a potter
lived down the road
in the woods
forty years
spinning bowls
growing old
with the forest
heart attack
some time back
a rickety run
every day
after that
our neighbor
our friend
the potter
died in the winter
in that little house
in the forest
they clear
cut this week.

           Here is the house
           left standing alone
           and here the last tree
           like the steeple
           that calls us to prayer
           and where are the doors
           we need to go through
           what will become of the people?


Hannah Thomassen lives in the Cascade foothills of Oregon where she works as a self-employed poet and lives with a husband, a dog, three chickens and two donkeys. Her work has appeared in a few places here and there.