Witherup, McNulty, Zimmerman, and LaMorticella

Poems by William Witherup
  
    
October in Appalachia
 

The last katydid knocks its tambourine,
dancing me here into what dark dream?
A bloody cloth is wiped across the trees
and the hills are full of howling strays.
     
Coal trucks hauling tons of darkness run
from Quicksand and Hazard and Kingdom Come,
dragging huge roots on underground chains,
leaking inky water thick as caulking.
     
This rocky shoulder leans toward winter sun.
The delicate mosses pray, gripping stone,
and broken dulimers break into flame.
The stars press our bones into what black seam? 
    

                                              –Hindman, Kentucky, 1973