Poetry
To Lancaster
by Kimberly Rhoades
the frigid blue Susquehanna
with endless white cracks-
a sea of bare trees before me
sway in the billowing breeze
and the tip of the mountain-
he had talked about.
unlivable shacks on the waterfront
with a “beware of dog” sign-
then a tunnel filled with a pure
black-
velvet-
nothingness.
a child flat on their belly
sledding down the snow dusted hill
so innocent-
and at play.
the dizzying train window
framing a picturesque Pennsylvania.
these rapid rousing glimpses
into lives other than my own.
reminding me that there are
fisherman knee deep by houses
with endless drab colors.
each with their own stories
in whatever the Hell
this town is called.
“Hope has a name
… and it’s Jesus!”
Patsy Cline’s crisp notes serenade me
into yet another sleepy town
with an antique shop on the corner
I’m daydreaming and thinking if I tried…
could I walk from one side of the bank
to the other?
did “God” make the ice strong enough?
could I handle the shock my body
would surely endure if I went through?
what I would give to feel that-
instant peace.
my ailments would fly away
like a white harmonious dove-
flapping it’s thunderous wings
steadily towards the heavenly skies
above.
Then we could be together again.
grey chimney smoke ascends
from that frosted mountain tip
off in the distance ahead.
like clockwork
he carefully tends to his fire.
his fervent soul running
through my weaving veins
to this day and those to come.
I imagine he is happy-
living in those “little trees”
of rural Pennsylvania.
To Lancaster
I am reminded-
of him.
Kimberly (Kimmi) Rhoades is a 26 year old video/content creator who lives with her wife outside of Pittsburgh. She has lived in the Pittsburgh area her entire life and has always been fascinated by the beauty of nature, even as a child. Rhoades wrote this poem “To Lancaster” a few years after her father’s passing. It’s about when she took a train to her cousin’s wedding from Pittsburgh to Lancaster (where her father grew up and died at 55), she wrote what she saw and felt into this poem framing Appalachia Pennsylvania.