Letter to E. After Reading Seamus Heaney’s Nobel Prize Lecture in Another Nevada Pinyon-Juniper Forest Scheduled For Clearcut
A Poem by Will Falk
Dear E., What if you found me out here, in the mud and muck, in the runoff of my own snowmelt, naked, shriveled, shivering, throat exposed and utterly alone? What if the fight got so hot that the glaciated armor encasing my heart finally thawed? Would you build me a fire? Wrap me in your fur? Feed me with me your wildest desires? Let me lick the last trickle of what’s left of your wettest wishes? Or, would you recognize me, then, for the deserter I truly am? I, too, am a raving wood kern, so sick of battle that I cast my chipped shillelagh into a thicket of thorns and tried to hide in mud’s embrace. But mud doesn’t soothe cowards. So, I tried to bury myself before I was truly dead. Can you ignore that? Will you kiss the dried blood from my blue lips? Use your finger tips to probe my wounds and remove any doubt that I have – without deserving it, or even wanting it – resurrected to once again provide some kind of protection?. Yes, my fingers know how to fight, my hands know how to make war. And, I would again, if only I could remember how to make love. Teach me. Give me a reason. Let me be helpless, soft, limp even…and I promise I will rise again. I will crawl through thorns and thickets. I will let the sharpest rip until they paint my pale skin red. I will find my weapon, then. I will wield the passion that only a once-dead man can. I will. I’ll do this until I’m dead again. Will.
Will Falk (he/him) is a poet, attorney, and community organizer. He writes poems while traveling across the US to offer free legal services to communities fighting against extractive projects like mines, pipelines, and clear-cuts. His poems have appeared through Chapter House Journal, ONE ART, Sheila-na-gig Online, and Wayfarer Magazine, among others. His first poetry collection is When I Set the Sweetgrass Down (Wayfarer Books, 2023).
