Colcha

poem in c minor

73 poem in c minor for memory what i remember is imperfect a yellow house a large man with possessed hands my sister with her reedy saxophone my brother with his dented coronet yet amid all the half memories the sinful yellow house still stands i come early while the dew is still clinging to the earth in the half dark of what i call a malignant blue morning amid my breath i grease the tractor the rows of cut alfalfa turn in 1/2 mile circles around me the sinful yellow house sits quiet his name was Polk six foot of polyester big hands jive collars god shed his grace on thee rhythm which would bring the auditorium into the spell of his moving hands in that yellow house he laid those same hands ran those same hands over the smooth skin of his daughter a shadow 74 which simply put would become the rumor of the yellow house the house itself comes to me in fragments of isolation caught between the shadows of the san juans and the sangre de cristos each pulling not for day or night but each for its own redemption a young girl’s voice a tormented song devoid of grace it was Polk with his suicide in that yellow house which made me believe that the mountains named for saints and christ’s blood have their own sort of vengeance the mountains are everyone’s last image of this place they remind us that we forget so easily what does not haunt us her daddy led the band with its dented coronets and reedy saxophones which somehow beneath these mountains became a disconnected melody about a man who sinned inside a yellow house 75 in the early mornings as i work the fields around that yellow house i can feel the sangre de cristos the darkness of their cedar as they give up the sun to the san juans fading darkness a young girl from back then a woman now must see these mountains as a soulless far off place i look through old pictures Polk stands right foot forward his band dressed in blue in a semi-circle around him i focus on his eyes blank as an empty yellow house his blue band silent and smiling around him ...