Scarecrow Sings the High Lonesome
Nothing about me shines or sparkles. If asked,
I would place myself among the discarded —
remnant cloth and straw, worn, inedible,
useless, if not for packaging intended to
convey a certain message, which I of course
have subverted to “Welcome, corvids!” Even
my voice lies stranded in the refuse, silent
yet harmonious, clear yet strangled, whole
and unheard, dispersed, like tiny drops of
vapor listing above the ocean’s swell, enduring
gray skies and gulls and those solemn rocks
bearing their weight against the white crush.
Why do I persist? What tethers a shadow
to its body? How do we hear by implication
what isn’t there? Bill Monroe hammered
his mandolin, chopping chords, muting,
droning, banging out incomplete minors
to expectant ears, constructing more than
a ladder of notes climbing past the rafters
into the smoky sky. What I sing is not
heard but implied: the high lonesome, blue
and old-time, repealed. Crushed limestone
underfoot. Stolen names, borrowed sounds.
Dark words subsumed by light, yellowed,
whitened, faded to obscurity, to obscenity.
“Scarecrow Sings the High Lonesome” first appeared in Crannóg, in June 2017.
O at the Edges 
Not unheard! I hope Scarecrow knows how his Corvid friends adore him!
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I think Scarecrow is having a good day, standing out in his field…
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Scarecrow perhaps misses the sparkle his appearances create in others?
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Scarecrow is a great observer, but he seldom sees himself. 🤔
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Aw
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Thank you.
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Walking spirit’s tied to a stake,
that i know, burned 96 times
by the pope… Fool me once, fool me twice,
nonetheless you;ll never fool
my friends the crows!
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“What tethers a shadow
to its body?”
awesome!
Scarecrow sings the unforgettable songs!
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Thank you, Sarah!
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I liked how you tied in Bill Monroe into your poem, “The Father of Bluegrass”, quite appropriate, and your last two lines, could be words about my poetry…..
“Dark words subsumed by light, yellowed,
whitened, faded to obscurity, to obscenity.”
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Had to include Bill Monroe! And ha! Obscurit seems our likeliest path, doesn’t it?
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Yes that’s for sure, but we shouldn’t worry, we’ll be gone, like a scarecrow, just a bag of bones
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Yep!
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One for Halloween 👻👻
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Each one of these is a gem. “Welcome, corvids!”–and their shadows too– always. (K)
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Everyone should have corvid friends!
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