Robert Fillman

Legacy

I wanted to sit in the kitchen
of Hunter’s Cabin, with its stove
and salvaged table, smell the woodsmoke
of a small fire, winter afternoon
alive in every timber, some snow
on the ground, my body heat blushing
against the cold glass of the windows.

I wanted to stay an hour, just long
enough to be bored, to boil a can
of soup, not glancing at my phone or
laptop, not reading headlines, instead
feeling the floor creak beneath my feet,
watching for a bobcat or gray fox
or whatever stealthy animal
stalks that sharp line between life and death.

I wanted to touch the centuries
of instinct that bloom in these roofed walls,
all the parts that are left out of me,
found in a sander’s rasp, a pegged board,
the worn handle of a cutting tool.

I wanted to hear the cautious yelp
of a dog as it dreams of chasing
a rabbit, the soft hide wet in its mouth,
longings that pad the trails of a mind
and leave knowing, for now, it’s enough.

Robert Fillman is the author of The Melting Point (Broadstone Books, 2025), House Bird (Terrapin Books, 2022), and the chapbook November Weather Spell (Main Street Rag, 2019). His poems have appeared in Spoon River Poetry Review, Tar River Poetry, and Verse Daily. An assistant professor of English at Kutztown University, he also serves on the board of Poetry-in-Transit and as poetry editor at Pennsylvania English.