{"id":2582,"date":"2015-07-27T15:08:40","date_gmt":"2015-07-27T20:08:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/faithhopeandfiction.com\/?p=2582"},"modified":"2020-09-05T03:56:45","modified_gmt":"2020-09-05T08:56:45","slug":"a-box-of-old-letters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/faithhopeandfiction.com\/content\/a-box-of-old-letters\/","title":{"rendered":"A Box of Old Letters"},"content":{"rendered":"
Poetry by<\/h5>\n

Richard Luftig<\/a><\/h3>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

Found in the attic after I bought the place,
\nthe address on the front always the same.
\nBut the postmarks an atlas heading west,
\nalways west down the Ohio to Cairo
\nthen up the Mississippi to St Louis.
\nEach day took him farther and further<\/p>\n

from her touch, through towns
\nwith populations smaller than their area,
\ntree lines thinned then vanished, land bleached
\nlike the bones of cattle lining the trail.
\nPlaces where quarter-sections were left
\nfor dead, land, a disaster never more<\/p>\n

than one drought away. And he pleading
\nfor a letter, some word to expel the fears
\nof losing her that grew with each passing
\nmile, enclosing pressed flowers:
\nhawthorns, pieces of sunflowers\u2014
\nthe color, he said of her hair\u2014<\/p>\n

columbines, then poppies when he crossed
\nthe Sierras into California, he looking
\nfor the gold that would bring her
\nto him and we never learning
\nif he ever possessed a box
\nto save on his side of the world.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\n

Richard Luftig<\/strong> is a past professor of educational psychology and special education at Miami University in Ohio who now resides in California. He is a recipient of the Cincinnati Post-Corbett Foundation Award for Literature and a semi-finalist for the Emily Dickinson Society Award. His poems have appeared in numerous literary journals in the United States and internationally in Japan, Canada, Australia, Europe, Thailand, Hong Kong and India. One of his poems was nominated for the 2012 Pushcart Poetry Prize.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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