TURN IT UP, BAREFOOT MAN

TURN IT UP, I ASK THE BAREFOOT MAN

      

I had a little sweet spot for the rain

            Bruce Springsteen

We are in the mountains,

looking at Western Stars.

I feel like I belong,

(Be thou my vision)

I can sing hymns

breathing, breaking lines

from the pew on a back beat

the way Van climbs Vanlose Stairway.

Sometimes descending switchbacks

my trekking poles turn me

into one of the four-leggeds,

I can hear my mother call, Jimmy!

In the half-step knee-lock, crossing

watersheds, no visa required, rising.

           --for Glenn Jordan

Jim Bodeen

24 August 2019