Three Poems by Dale Patterson: "on jade melmac", "old harry’s greed", and "rockhound"

Dale is a visual artist and poet living in Indiana. His work has been published in many online and print journals; the most recent appearing in: Pilgrimage, The Tower Journal, The Museum of Americana, The Lake, Short Fast and Deadly and Midwestern Gothic. A more complete listing of Dale’s work can be seen on his website http://dalepattersonart.com/

on jade melmac

my clod-hopper boots on a path
near the end of the day

across the tilled fields distant hills sink
pales of grass

matted beneath fawn
slender in girth
breath
imperceptible
spring

freeze and thaw
earth breaking down

into a table
set

by the stove
flatware and plates
potatoes
onions

carrots
fork-tender meat
falling apart into sunset

old harry’s greed

plagued with
grasshopper legs
twisted cane
for support
he intrudes on
his neighbor’s
small garden.

he shovels-in
handfuls
of cherry tomatoes
one then another
in widening grin
slobber and seeds
filling the gaps
between teeth
with gratuitous red.
 
knapping his beak
like a piece
of grey chert
a blackmailing
sparrow

a witness

who offers
stone silence

to glean
in the devil’s
own spittle.

rockhound

sparse grass,

exposures of bedrock

to an incline of shrubs

that brittle-twigs

welts on her legs.

blonde hair

rumpled in swelter

she summits the ridge,

breathes

lake superior.

each water-washed

roundness of stone

shines

like a red-bellied snake.

picking one up

she gives it a name.

another she kisses,

examine its depth,

an iron-eyed agate

she will keep

for the rest

of her life.

~Dale Patterson