No Fence

There is nothing here

No fence, no marker,

Just a brown gravel road,

And new bright houses built these past years.

No marker but the small Private Property sign

That suggests that something possibly did

That would bring others like me to stand here at the cross streets.

I don’t blame them.

I too wouldn’t want to remember as I drove the kids to school each day

Walked the roads at night to see the stars

Headed out to church

Or off for a morning run.

And yet,

It is memory that has brought me here

This aching sadness that recalls me to all I would rather forget

This early morning

That cold night and wind swept morning

What happened here to a boy named Matthew

No fence, no marker,

Nothing to recall what hate and fear has us do.

Nothing but green grass

Brown tufts of flowers

Blue snowy peaks and sky.

And this wind,

This relentless cold wind.