The Love Between Us
If I had been there, maybe it wouldn’t have snowed the day
we walked to the grave in Turley’s Woods, winter twilight on our faces,
the children singing when they lowered my mother into the dark,
the people quiet as if I carried a strange scent on my clothes
after leaving the land and the people, the weight of belonging—
if I had been there—
I would have stood by my father holding her hairbrush,
watching the line of red lights turn onto I-40 north to Chicago
or south to St. Louis—
if I had been there—and maybe she knew I was there,
hearing my tenor in the chorus—
feeling my handful of Illinois dirt as the children sang
Professor Emeritus at California Lutheran University, J.T. Ledbetter is the author of four books of poetry: Plum Creek Odyssey (Valparaiso University Press, 1975), Blue Galaxy Iris (Vanguard Press, 2007), Underlying Premises (Lewis Clark Press, 2010), and most recently, Old and Lost Rivers (Lost Horse Press, 2012), winner of the Idaho Prize for poetry. He’s also published six chapbooks of poems, a volume of literary criticism and essays, as well as two plays. His poems appear in many journals, including Poetry, Prairie Schooner, The Southern Review, and The Sewanee Review. His creative output extends to a musical stage play, several choral anthems, as well as published collage work. He was the subject of Innisfree’s Closer Look series.