Blue Mountain Arts Poetry Contest
Hometown
by Jessy Weiss
Nineteenth Contest
third Place
It is standing in the bathroom of the
Library and looking
Out the little window
Into the backstreets
Of your small town and
Dreaming big dreams
That will take you
Past the grocery store and
Local laundromat
But will bring you back again.
It is sitting on
The park swings
Holding everything
That is a part of you
In your lap
And realizing
You can go as high
As you have the guts
To dare to go.
It is a place
Where grief
Sits between
Your shoulder blades
And rocks you
To sleep
At night,
Yet also gives birth
To a dream so big
It takes both your arms
To hold it.
It is lying
In knee-high grass
Beneath the shade of
Plum trees
All afternoon
And watching the wide
Blue sky
While the immediate pressures
Of young life
Hold.
It is sitting
Barefoot and loose
On the metal tailgate
Of a truck
As you hold the cool
Night air
To your skin
Temporarily putting away
Whatever wars you own
For watching fireworks
On a perfect night
In July.
It is somewhere
that gives you something
To call your own
Which after a time
Begins
To call you its own
And as the years
Go by
Finally satisfies
A desperate longing
To know and be known.
It is lying atop
A big mare
Your hands
Tangled high into her mane
As you trace
The muscles in her neck
With your small fingers
Feeling her power
Ignite your own
Zest.
Hometown…
It is like shoes that
Fit just right
Comfortably stylish
With a sense of solidity
Classy, yet not too “blingy.”
It is a place
That gives clarity and support
To your being
Yet steps aside
When you must move on
And waits
Until you need
To come back.