It happens all the time. Walking in the woods, you come across something abandoned...and suddenly your thoughts careen into a different direction.

Jeff Hartzer is a poet, writer, teacher, artist, and photographer who resides in Albuquerque, New Mexico with his wife, Debra Landau , and their Schipperke dogs . He is the creator of BunnytownUSA . Jeff serves as the Executive Director of the AirDance ArtSpace , home to the critically acclaimed aerial dance troupe, AirDance New Mexico . Jeff is a Florida Native who migrated to the Pacific Northwest before settling into the High Desert of New Mexico in 1985.


HALFWAY UP THE HILL


A giant hawk screams warning
I whistle back
then the dog barks
then the Volkswagen
lies dead in the woods
right there
It happens that way
on Sundays
out walking with God
Then the Volkswagen
lies smashed and dead
papers scattered across the straw
windshields blasted away
And I sit
where it sits
Still as death
while my dog walks close
and sniffs and barks
And the sun warms my back
on an October Sunday
when leaves are crimson
more bright than the dead
My life is filled with symbols
and signs
like the dream of thumbs and fingers
Mimi says I need to be touched
Yes I say
Touch me
all you people
Touch me
and my heart will shatter open
like this broken windshield
so very still
so right with the world
And how in the hell did this
stolen heart of a Volkswagen
get up this hill halfway
to this place here
to be dumped lifeless
in the woods
And what's in it for me
where is the sign
what does it all mean
And where'd that hawk go?


© 2010
Jeff Hartzer

Taken from Jeff Hartzer's book, FLAMINGOS

Poetry submissions are welcome. Email theditchrider@gmail.com.