Massachusetts Daily Collegian

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

Massachusetts Daily Collegian

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

Massachusetts Daily Collegian

Black ice: A poem

Memories beyond the mountains
Photo+by+Chloe+Blauner
Photo by Chloe Blauner

There are mountains on top of mountains

And if there’s not one in front of me, I will push together soft dirt

So I can form a new hill that I can’t see over.

Long ago established roads weave through the mountains, and

Every peaceful valley I pass through, I pretend is just a dream.

And on these nonexistent nights I drive alone,

Your name is the black ice on the road.

No matter how big the earth is, if you’re driving in circles you pass the same things twice-

And I’ve seen you before, in another life.

And I knew you so well in another version of myself,

And I cross you on the path, but you don’t recognize me, and since I’m a stranger, you quietly pass.

There are lonely sounds that echo in these mountains,

The cackles and screams of the people who went crazy looking for a valley that they swore they saw so clearly in a dream.

And if you ever find one of these people, you’ve got to just let them be,

Because the most dangerous people are the delusional ones who live inside a dream.

Past the nonexistent valley, I reach a nonexistent shore,

And I follow sandy footprints until I cross paths with a stranger

Whose eyes I can remember,

But who I understand I don’t know anymore.

And in this other life I’m living, this version 633 of me,

I’ll smile at you in passing, but I will leave your memory on this made-up beach.

And in this lukewarm bout of understanding, the black ice melts away

And I can drive away again, but this time I don’t see your face, and

I just have to believe that at some point, there will be no mountains beyond the mountains,

And that life will be easy and kind.

 

Chloe Blauner can be reached at [email protected].

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  • D

    David M Johnson / pen name DJ MarshallAug 20, 2020 at 7:57 am

    Hi,…I’m sorry I missed this—for over a year?/ I just came across it and liked your poem very much. I do not have time today look further at your work though will do so. Be Well, if you can. DJ Marshall

    Reply
  • D

    David M JohnsonFeb 12, 2019 at 3:23 pm

    I really like your work,…try a look at some of mine at http://www.djmarshallgroup.net, I’m an artist and painter, ….one who paints , then writes what would go with the painting, and sometimes I write first the create a painting to go with the verse. At any rate—what you wrote, sounds like something I might have written someday, if you had not already written it. I suppose no higher compliment can be given. Be Well.

    DJ Marshall the Writing & Artistic name for David M. Johnson

    Reply