DATABASE
Somewhere a
database
Holds the
names,
Linked perhaps
to a short bio,
Longer if you
wish to pay,
Of all those
living
At any given
moment.
In another
file,
All who have
ever lived.
Clever software
makes
Instantaneous
changes.
One file will
grow some,
Then contract a
bit;
The other only
grows.
NORTHERN VIRGINIA
A
subdivision morning,
In
the part of Virginia that is not really the
South,
In
the part of March that is not quite spring:
Slivers of sunlight angle around clouds
In a
sky of washed-out blue,
A
dull glint on slate-gray waters (not a real lake).
Master Sergeants keep their boats here.
Pines, some ice-snapped, some in arabesque
Before a solitary daffodil, tinged with frost.
Frances and Paul (not their real names) are packing to
move again,
Up
the interstate, an hour farther north.
Children of this waning American century,
They
carry little furniture but lots of sweaters, compact disks,
Wedding gifts in boxes they came in,
To a
warren of townhomes,
Each
with a shallow-rooted tree
Set
in soil fortified with fratricidal blood,
Where the builder’s shovel has turned over Minie
balls,
Pieces of bayonets, buckles,
Belongings of other sojourners
In
this now accentless land.
“Northern Virginia”
appeared in Thorny Locust March 2001
Robert Demaree is the author of four collections of
poems, including Fathers and Teachers
(2007) and Mileposts (2009), both
published by Beech River Books. The winner of the 2007 Conway, N.H., Library
Poetry Award, he is a retired school administrator with ties to North Carolina,
Pennsylvania and New Hampshire in the eastern U.S. He has had over 550 poems
published or accepted by 125 periodicals in the U.S., Canada and U.K., including
Cold Mountain Review, Red Wheelbarrow, Miller’s Pond, MediaVirus, Bolts of Silk,
Louisville Review and Paris/Atlantic, and in four anthologies including the 2008
and 2010 editions of Poet’s Guide to New
Hampshire and Celebrating Poets over
70.. For further information see http://www.demareepoetry.
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