I've been lucky enough to work from my dad's little hobby ranch in Enoch, UT the last couple of weeks. Here's a poem I wrote while staying here. The irony is that I will be leaving soon. Grateful for the reprieve from the fast-paced, relentless world. The countryside gives one perspective.
EDGE OF ENOCH
By Steven Fales
My father lives in a small green tin-roofed
log cabin
But there are many mansions within his
evergreen heart:
Six estates exist for his original bless-ed
six
With realms for each of their children’s
children;
Generous tracts of land are also laid
aside
Subdivided for steps and cousins of his
unruly tribe;
Because three fair kingdoms were once established
As each templed wife begat a trilogy of
three-ring adventures
Requiring voracious acreage and
limitless water rights.
There are no known hidden closets for
chamber maidens—
Only high granite walls built to
unwelcome those who threaten
To ding and destroy the paternal patina
of his homemade steeples.
His parents, long gone to their reward,
left all vast acquisitions
To him, their oldest son, and his no
lesser brother and sister
So looking ahead and looking back are
forever non-linear
Furrowed spacious fields of saplings of
love in every direction.
The four elements cannot contain the eternal
heartland where
Fifth-dimensional ether forbids borders
and fences of place and time
Insisting an “all inclusive resort” be
the new family proclamation when
Finally taking dad on that proper damn Kolob
sublimation vacation.
As for me I have only three stalls in my
mortal mon coeur.
Room just enough for my now grown
daughter and son.
Love passed me by so many times I accept
my (p)lot
As I dwell at the end of the road on the
edge of Enoch and Equinox
In a comfy stable near my father’s house
down One Heart Ranch Lane
Content to be me in an infinite
thatched-roof hovel of mine own
At the iron crossroads of Alpha and
Omega’s vast sacred coracion.
(Note.
Enoch equals eternity. Equinox equals equestrian. Ether equals quintessence.)
