Spiraling
out of the sky
The
plane slides into Clarksburg
The
flight from Pittsburgh exhilarating
In a two-row prop plane
Flying just high
enough
That you had to
squint
To see the startled faces of the
cows below
Linda’s
uncle was waiting for us
A
gruff old ex-military assembly line lifer
A
total softy she assures me
I
am spared a view of his famous tattoos
The
ones over each breast
The ones that read “Sweet” and “Sweeter”
We
are here to claim the leftovers
The
mementos of Grandma’s house
That
my Father-in-law failed to retrieve
When
he ended up DOA
Exiting from the same room he had entered
Nearly
sixty years before
We
arrived at the two story haunted house
Still
reeling from the tragedy
The
one that awoke us one May morning
Letting
us know Randy had died in his sleep
Everything
was still sitting around
His
new white Suburban
All
the boxes they’d packed
The
house and the land
And every last ancestor as well
The
place was stuffed to the rafters
With the dearly departed
Who refused to depart
Who
can blame them
The
cemetery was just down the hill
They
could see the house from where they lay
Why
hang around in the dirt and worms
When
everyone was spittin’ and cussin’
Carrying on and having a good time
Back up at the house
We
tried to stay the whole night
Up
on the second floor
Right
next to where her father had died
Surrounded
by the generations
Of
mischievous backwoods coal miners
It
was not a restful night
Those
jerks kept screwing with us
Probably thought it was hilarious
It
was really just annoying
All we wanted was sleep
What
we got was a 3am departure
Down a road dense with fog
On
the stereo John Denver played
It was one of Randy’s favorites
As
John sang of these country roads
And the mountains so old and knowing
We
could feel the old home disappear behind
Along with every passing mile
Letting
us shake off the melancholy
As we drenched ourselves in tears
Driving
on until the sun rose over Ohio
Leaving West Virginia just a foggy memory
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