Grandmother

Jared Carter

Then walk with me, she said, the path
   diverges here.
I think words are the aftermath
   of what’s not clear—

Bowdark, thornapple, chicory—
   yet we go on
Pretending. There will always be
a pathway, gone

But still recalled, or tucked away
   in books, until
Such time. “As this?” I cannot say.
Perhaps you will.

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Jared’s notes: “The poem is an Alexandroid, which has little room for explanation. Words can clarify, even though sometimes we do not quite understand the words themselves. Line 5 mentions ‘Bowdark, thornapple, chicory’ -- traditional names for three widely distributed plants with extraordinary natural and social histories. Each may be thought to constitute a forgotten pathway that, in parlous times, might still offer a different kind of understanding.”

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‘Grandmother’ is presently scheduled for inclusion in Heart’s Forest, forthcoming from Able Muse Press in San Jose, California. Jared Carter lives in the Midwestern state of Indiana.

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Image (below) from Wikipedia; own work.

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Grandmother Jared Carter

Grandmother

Jared Carter