Driving with the Dead: Poems

What Matters

5 What Matters Country ham, strong coffee, hot biscuits, thick stew, mandarin sunsets through bright windows. Jack-in-the-pulpit, Trillium, black Pawpaw blossom as we find spring, green fiddleheads by the fencerow. Night birds in soft summer, familiar points on the sky map, red stars the heart of the Scorpion and Eye of the Bull, a shared blanket. Flannel sheets, my hand-stitched quilts, star-speckled skylights, snow swirl, down pillows. Rusty dogwoods, flames of maple, cider clean and bright on the tongue, red sweet jam, summer in a jar. Slow fire, wood smoke, high lonesome bluegrass, a dog-eared favorite, my chair near yours, a good poem. ...