Jesse Graves

Two Stones

               When gods were young/This wind was old.

                                                           -Edward Thomas

Even in bright noontime, we never walked

beyond the ridgeline where the babies’ graves

were marked by two stones and a blue placard.

Pinewoods made rich understory, with caves,

fault lines, and fissures pock-marking the ground.

They were Johnson children, born with two years

between them and died before they found

their footing, fulfilling their parents’ fears.

No matter how mild the day in yard and field,

howling wind topped that ridge and shook tall trees.

My cousins and I kept our eyes sharp, scanning

for any movement that might freeze us up,

for any sound that could be a hushed lullaby,

or the cooing a baby makes just before long sleep. 

Jesse Graves is the author of five poetry collections, including Tennessee Landscape with Blighted Pine, and a collection of essays, Said-Songs: Essays on Poetry and Place. His work received the James Still Award for Writing about the Appalachian South from the Fellowship of Southern Writers.