Three Poems for Up on the Hill and Upper Valley Land Trust
by Hope Jordan
Jul, 2021
Father’s Day, 2021
Rows of corn whiffle in the heated breeze
remind me of the muck workers you got to know
summertimes when you ran the register at my uncle’s store
on the lake road corner. Those men who spent
the night on our couches and floor. Here the mylar
balloon made its pilgrimage for who knows how
many miles carried by hot air,
collapsed at the base of cornstalks, a bright red
and white Congratulations! Father’s Day.
The old wooden gate rots alongside the road.
The new one’s shiny metal, and closed.
Unoccupied
but signs of habitation—cultivated rows
of corn, just a giant grass, and meadows
upon meadows. My first eastern kingbird
shakes his tyrant head. Tyrant flycatcher.
Fire-engine-tie-father. Here shadows
occupy outbuildings. Here the champion beech
tree contains microclimates. A beechnut
clunks to the ground, green and hard. High
on nitrogen, invasives tendril into the paths.
Beneath the blue and white sky a base
of ferns lifts daisies, purple clover, black-eyed
Susans, all gazing up & into the sun.
Eye Socket Pond, Midsummer
Where milkweed blossoms curl in clusters,
pink confections served on leaves
shaped like platters. First the sound
of a bullfrog, then another, then another, a mid-year
mid-day call and response, here
is where the earth turns, right
here we are suspended between all
that was and all that will be,
here is the father still alive,
still going up the hill to hay
the meadow, to plow the field, to harvest
the forest. Here is an old spiderweb
strung between stalks. Standing timber.
Hope Jordan grew up in Chittenango, NY. She holds a dual BA from Syracuse and an MFA from UMass Boston. Her poems have appeared in Nine Mile, Comstock Review, and Naugatuck River Review, among other publications. A longtime member of the Concord, NH-based Yogurt Poets writing group, she was the first official poetry slam master in New Hampshire, and co-founded what is now Slam Free or Die in 2006. Her chapbook is The Day She Decided to Feed Crows. Visit Hope at hopejordan.pressfolios.com
At Upper Valley Land Trust (uvlt.org) we provide conservation leadership, tools and expertise to permanently protect the working farms, forested ridges, wildlife habitat, water resources, trails and scenic landscapes that surround residential areas and commercial centers and make the Upper Valley a truly special place to live.