Porch Song

by Jack B. Bedell

“One day I’m gonna die,

       and take this whole town with me.”

                               —Julia Brown

Wind kicked up as soon as the first

       shovel blade dug into the ground

                   the day she died. The way

the old people tell it, oak branches

       started scratching frottoir sounds

                   around the bone yard

and you could hear all the hawks

       whistling a tune from the edge

                   of the lake. By the time

they got her body into the dirt,

       the storm had already taken 

                   the lid off the Ruddock store,

blown it right down the street

       with everyone’s doors, their shutters,

                   and their porch furniture.

It didn’t take long for the water

       to swallow everything else.

                   And the old folks still swear

you could hear singing in between

       all the gusts, her last breaths 

curling into a hurricane.

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Jack B. Bedell is Professor of English and Coordinator of Creative Writing at Southeastern Louisiana University where he also edits Louisiana Literature and directs the Louisiana Literature Press. Jack’s work has appeared in Pidgeonholes, The Shore, Cotton Xenomorph, Okay Donkey, EcoTheo, The Hopper, Terrain, and other journals. His latest collection is No Brother, This Storm (Mercer University Press, 2018). He served as Louisiana Poet Laureate 2017-2019.