{"id":5382,"date":"2020-08-17T08:00:08","date_gmt":"2020-08-17T08:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/floridareview.cah.ucf.edu\/?post_type=article&p=5382"},"modified":"2020-08-17T08:00:08","modified_gmt":"2020-08-17T08:00:08","slug":"two-lynchburg-poems","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/article\/two-lynchburg-poems\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Lynchburg Poems"},"content":{"rendered":"

Riverside Park, Lynchburg<\/strong><\/h3>\n

At Riverside Park off Rivermont Avenue,<\/p>\n

Katy and I sit on a boulder viewing<\/p>\n

the overcast valley where classmates<\/p>\n

died leaping<\/p>\n

from the 200-foot train trestle.<\/p>\n

Every day my body betrays itself into<\/p>\n

believing it\u2019s dying, believing the pastor\u2019s<\/p>\n

words that homosexual boys<\/p>\n

are destined for death.<\/p>\n

Katy lights a cigarette as a canopy of leaves protects<\/p>\n

us from the rain, says, \u201cI wonder what it feels like to know<\/p>\n

you\u2019re going to die.\u201d The train whistles<\/p>\n

in the distance.<\/p>\n

My mom pretended to die for attention<\/p>\n

after she left me. For once I don\u2019t feel her<\/p>\n

absence in my body. For once<\/p>\n

I feel kind of okay, like I won\u2019t walk<\/p>\n

up and down a foggy<\/p>\n

Court Street at three a.m. in front of the Episcopal church,<\/p>\n

crying and begging<\/p>\n

God to make me straight so my father<\/p>\n

doesn\u2019t leave me too.<\/p>\n

We walk back toward the car in the rain,<\/p>\n

listening to the train chug pass in the distance<\/p>\n

along the riverbank.<\/p>\n

In the clearing between the path and the forest<\/p>\n

a gathering of fireflies twinkles in the twilight, my prayers<\/p>\n

burning in the trees.<\/p>\n

My arms around Katy who, after smoking,<\/p>\n

smells like my mom plummeting to earth<\/p>\n

on a meteor.<\/p>\n

A tear carves down the tracks of skin and leaps off<\/p>\n

my jawline. My body simmers to smoke,<\/p>\n

little fires,<\/p>\n

this figure of ash.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[Driving away from Lynchburg]<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Driving away from Lynchburg, realizing<\/p>\n

the Blue Ridge is my home but not<\/p>\n

where I\u2019m meant to live,<\/p>\n

a tiger swallowtail smears across<\/p>\n

my windshield in powder yellow.<\/p>\n

I too have wished to feel the painless<\/p>\n

end, but a windshield<\/p>\n

nebula requires a life, brittle<\/p>\n

as the swallowtail\u2019s chitin wings,<\/p>\n

one the mountains can\u2019t afford to lose.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

. . . I sit on a boulder viewing \/ the overcast valley where classmates \/ died leaping . . .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":5386,"template":"","categories":[9,49,119],"tags":[1576,1577,6,1578,1579,1580,1581,1582,1583],"class_list":["post-5382","article","type-article","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aquifer","category-literary-features","category-poetry","tag-driving-away-from-lynchburg","tag-andrew-hahn","tag-aquifer-the-florida-review-online","tag-homosexuality","tag-lynchburg-virginia","tag-riverside-park-lynchburg","tag-sexuality","tag-trains","tag-two-lynchburg-poems"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTwo Lynchburg Poems - The Florida Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/article\/two-lynchburg-poems\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Two Lynchburg Poems - The Florida Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\". . . 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