(x = space)
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Further In
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It’s a day that should own
A fireplace
The snow will be falling sometime
Outside is in the twenties
And the teens
Inside there could be fuel
A sofa or a chair
An ottoman
Coasters
Light snow first
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Something of a storm later on
The forecasters are not sure
How much
It will finally settle on the coast
And move up
New York, Boston,
Maine and then on out
To sea
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Maybe to an island,
Breathe on toward another shore
That I could name
An island of my mothers
I have not been blessed
To see
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C L Couch
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Photo by Patrick Hendry on Unsplash
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clcouch123 
January 31, 2021 at 4:31 pm
Ah, if I knew you were in Pennsylvannia, I forgot it. Snow on the way, eh? Possibly here, too, though they say it may go south of us. I’ve only driven through a couple times–once when I was 13 and my mother and grandmother took me on a tour of our history (wow, just to think about that now makes me so sad). Philadelphia. Gettysburg. We saw a play in New York City, went through Vermont and New Hampshire. Three states I’ve never made it to: Maine, Alaska, and Oregon. Used to think I wanted to see Ireland (I’m a lot Irish and English, German and French), Australia. Maybe Tuscany or the Bordeaux region of France. Once I wanted to go to Africa. But now those three states are all that is on my bucket list… look I’m writing another book. I was surprised as a child how beautiful and hilly Pennsylvannia was. I didn’t expect it. Years ago, a friend I made at Oral Roberts University (long story as a non-religious-yet-spiritual person why I was there), sang in a hotel lounge (they traveled all over the country), so I went to Pittsburg to see her and her guitarist Dave and remember it very fondly despite people always denigrating it. Sarah just died this year, but I keep in touch with Dave who now lives in Alabama, Mobile, and saw him a couple years ago…
January 31, 2021 at 9:08 pm
I grew up in western Pennsylvania in the Pittsburgh area, and my parents did a good job of taking us to the historic sites there. We also took a tour of middle and eastern Pennsylvania that included old forts and battlefields, the most famous of which was Gettysburg. Since living near Harrisburg, I’ve been to Gettysburg (a short drive away) several times. I’ve also enjoyed getting to know Baltimore, some.
You’re right, people still think of Pittsburgh as a dirty city, even though the atmosphere was cleaned up in the sixties. I have family there and so get back now and then.
I hope your snow is falling safety. Ours is falling oddly–in fits and starts. The forecasters haven’t been so sure in giving us an overall accumulation.
January 31, 2021 at 7:56 pm
I admire that opening line very much. It’s one to treasure, and that final stanza is so melancholic. Winter and its limiting power is a hard season the live through. I hope you do have enough fuel to make it cosy indoors.
January 31, 2021 at 9:01 pm
I’m happy you like the opening. And, yes, the end is melancholic, more so than I realized. I mean, I wrote it melancholic without owning up to myself about how I was feeling. My mother’s family is from Ireland as my father’s is from England. But it’s not simply the ancestral connection I miss having in a lively way. Because of conflicts in both families, I did not grow up related in real ways to my extended family. I don’t know them, still. I’m warm enough, thank you. I can be more concerned about how you and yours are doing with any cold and wet days.
January 31, 2021 at 9:20 pm
Thanks for worrying, but there’s no need. The weather is mild so we manage with the wood stove and the rain is only running into the barn. We have a couple of inches before it gets into the house.
It’s a shame when families don’t get on. It has repercussions down all the subsequent generations. But geography is a big divider anyway except for the reasonably affluent. My father was born in the US and though he came back to Europe, his family stayed, and I have never known any of them. They were never interested in the poor relations and my dad disliked the great American way of life so much he lost touch.
February 3, 2021 at 10:17 pm
Well, I can understand leaving the life that’s such a big deal here. I go for simpler and easier. But it’s sad that both of us have family we don’t know. I mean, one by one, I’m sure there are related people one could live without. Still, it would be good to know more. I’m glad and relieved you’re doing well with the weather.
February 4, 2021 at 4:00 pm
It was the dream of my dad’s father to go back to Ireland and he was brought up believing that the real life was somewhere else. He was a poet and not a very practical person. He was happier among greenery.
He had one sister who married a German-American and one niece who married an English-American. They visited us once apparently but I don’t remember it. We had no contact after that.
We’re fine here, on the hilly side of the Garonne, but our town has the privilege of being the most flooded in France at present. We’re cut off from the rest of the world, all roads out are flooded. You wouldn’t know here though, the water is gradually running away.
February 4, 2021 at 6:03 pm
It was my mother’s father or his father who came over from Ireland and eventually settled in Tennessee. But he was drowned (my mother’s father), and my mother didn’t speak of it or him. My father’s family has been here for a while; my father told a story of a landing in the 1640s. Neither of my parents told family stories much. They each had one sibling with whom they did not get along. I’m sure that situation didn’t help.
I’m relieved you are sitting well with regard to flooding, though I’m sorry for the town. Here, the sun is out today, first full measure since the snowstorm of a few days ago. My car is buried, but then I knew that would happen.