Paul Ilechko
Family history is a vast boneyard populated with shadows
that are cast by memories of memories it’s a hot land
and sometimes the lake catches fire and then it will burn
for a day or two during which time people will camp
out in the park and watch the flames as they change color
from blue to green and back to a deeper purple as
the oxidation is burned away
they carry banners with photographs of themselves as
saints or as villains and sing old songs songs that have
not been heard for centuries they speak a language
between themselves that they all seem to understand but
which is meaningless to us the living (of course it is
understandable that they would not feel any need to
accommodate such a small minority)
on those few occasions that we visit we keep to ourselves
and enjoy the color and imagery that is fabricated by the
reflections of the blaze letting the heat from the fire warm
us to the depths of our own bones watching the shapes
that the smoke makes as it curls its way back through
the layers of time to the earliest generations that we have
managed to discover.
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Paul Ilechko is the author of the chapbooks “Bartok in Winter” (Flutter Press, 2018) and “Graph of Life” (Finishing Line Press, 2018). His work has appeared in a variety of journals, including Manhattanville Review, West Trade Review, Yes Poetry, Otoliths and Indicia. He lives with his partner in Lambertville, NJ.
