Humboldt


Written by Jack Pontes
On a prairie patchwork blanket of earth
Life was interrupted at the crossroads
One life, and the many, fused together and apart
In an instant and then forever.
Ice had moved them there
Pushing their dreams
Until they glided down that highway
Towards their passion and their peace.
We were moved too
By their sudden return to the earth
Knowing, remembering,
How fragile that crystal glaze was.
We looked to the other highway of social data streams
To divide our tears and multiply our love for them
Compounding it, until the whole world
Met us at the crossing.
There the checkered blanket now bore their portrait
Imprinted on our minds and hearts
Causing us to trade our clothes
For the jerseys of our heroes.
We then knelt down our sticks by the doorway
Inviting their spirits to return home
And escape the grasp of wild winter’s winds
That would never let them move on to spring.
Then suddenly soon the seasons switched
While we were left wondering why
All these opposing forces
Collided in the first place.
Somehow we learned that we
Had been through that intersection
Where the past consoled the future
And considered the true impact of their exchange.
How one life, and the many,
Fused together and apart by organs
Offered by our hero who gave his precious gift
For completing his years on the quilt.
And how we marked these unions too
Of people and places
Time and transition
Sorrow and sympathy
With crosses of hockey sticks
Green and yellow ribbons
Sunflowers and roses
Angel wings and skates
And yes our great banner
That always bears the emblem
Of season change as if to say
This too will be our rite of passage.
Jack, a Fine Arts teacher for over 15 years, has written 4 musical theatre plays including, ‘Noah and the Ark’ staged in 2007. He has also written many social justice songs such as, ‘Hush Little Baby’, dedicated to the Peshawar Refugee Camp in Pakistan. Jack has also written children’s stories such as, ‘The Dragon Hunter’ which received a stellar review from Canadian novelist Makeda Silvera. Jack has also written many poems and lyric poems including, ‘The Bull Fight’, which was featured on Yahoo Glue and Humboldt, which was published in Raconteur Magazine.

Written by Jack Pontes
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