How
By Patrick T. Reardon
.
Ash the milk.
Ash the caped-boy hero snapshot.
.
Ash Blacktop, signboards,
white t-shirt boy.
Ash left hand bunt.
Ash weight circles lift.
.
How keen?
.
Ash altar-boy uniform.
Ash linebacker uniform,
grade school uniform,
marriage-day uniform.
.
Ash the hair in the furnace,
the toes, the 2 elbows,
the metaled back,
the jaw, the stutter tongue,
the skull, the hole in the skull.
.
How dirge?
.
Mix ash with concrete,
build a short walk through grass
to nowhere,
take the sledge
and slam it down and
again and
again and
again and
again and
again and
again and
again and
again and
fissure cement to sacred handwriting.
.
Do this in memory.
Patrick T. Reardon
3.22.22
.
This poem was originally published by Digging Through the Fat on 2.25.22.
Written by : Patrick T. Reardon
For more than three decades Patrick T. Reardon was an urban affairs writer, a feature writer, a columnist, and an editor for the Chicago Tribune. In 2000 he was one of a team of 50 staff members who won a Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting. Now a freelance writer and poet, he has contributed chapters to several books and is the author of Faith Stripped to Its Essence. His website is https://patricktreardon.com/.