Medicine Hat

Poets post their works-in-progress here for crit and commentary. We want poets who are serious about getting their work published.
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Kenneth2816
Posts: 1619
Joined: 01 Jun 2008, 09:17

Medicine Hat

#1 Post by Kenneth2816 » 12 Jun 2022, 15:28

Kipling called it Hell's basement.
We come each year with the kids

to float The Seven Persons River.
At the airport, we drag our family

history like a thick umbilicus.
They say Blackfoot women gave

birth leaning against a tree,
chewed the cord and daubed

blood on the baby's forehead.
You drink by the pool, I feed slots.

Blessedly lost from each other,
in a thousand years, they'll find us:

a heap of old bones stacked against
a Cottonwood,carved in scrimshaw.

BobBradshaw
Posts: 2683
Joined: 03 Jun 2016, 21:03

Re: Medicine Hat

#2 Post by BobBradshaw » 12 Jun 2022, 23:58

We live in extraordinary places, which mostly go unrecognized by us who drink by the pool, and feed the slot machines. I love the details, especially about the Blackfoot women. I also like how the close pulls back, to give us death’s perspective…and although I doubt our bones would be carved in scrimshaw. we’d be blessed imho if they were. Good poem.

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