it took a snowfall in may to wake me

coventry, over the fence from lake view cemetery, cleveland

a high green wooden fence

my cousin's backyard where we played hide & seek

peeking thru the cracks

i could see headstones

too still for the impatience

of an eight-year-old

many decades later

still no hiding places

only the words of daniel thompson

the poet freedom rider carries on

food to the hungry

quiet and fiery

in john brown's body

the snow passed when darkness fell

--- e b bortz