on cherry hill with my martin backpacking guitar

on cherry hill with my martin backpacking guitar

1

three years ago

Martin began making them--

cut-down, sawn-off

easy to carry anywhere

I know an executive

Chris at the music store told me who

takes his to the office. This is a big seller

for men

30 to 45

half mandolin, half banjo

mellow and light so you can

feel it hum, pressed

against your ribs--

start your whole insides

to singing with one

strum

2

the first time I came out to Cherry Hill

a crack in the old

stone bridge

revealed yellowed photos torn

from Penthouse and Playboy,

sent our 8-yr-old stomachs

to our mouths--

threatened to pull us

inside-out, crotch first

why "Cherry Hill?" I asked

and Kirk told me he'd heard

all the high school girls

had lost their cherries here

we were so young

we looked for them

3

coming out here alone

with my guitar

I have developed a new

religion

or maybe an old one

the long grass on the hill

contains the spirits

of all little boys

who giggle here

and later find the world

mortared with more flesh

than any centerfold

the Spirits Temporal

graze as lost sheep

until I return, an older David

with my harp, singing

Absalom Absalom!

releasing them into the Eternal

in this ritual of adult

perspective

you must be

grass level, facing Heaven and playing

the chords to

Gone to Carolina in My Mind

4

I went walking with my 5-year-old daughter

and our feet led us

to Cherry Hill;

she wanted to stand on the

stone bridge

I'd told her about

see herself in the still creek below

she ran

here and there, collecting bits of

trash, old pop cans

oil jugs, asking, Can we

recycle this? and Why

do people want to trash

this place?

I wanted to tell her

want is too strong a word

but all I said was, Don't touch --

it's dirty. Someone else will get it.

of course, no one else would but at least

she never found

any photos

going home she asked,

Why do they call it "Cherry Hill?" I didn't see

any cherry trees.

and I had a thought

that today was a good day

for planting some