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A Hunter Waits

He waits in the cold

with schnapps and a twenty-two rifle

in a wooden look-out tower

on stilts overlooking a clearing,

now the thin winter ice,

as the moon’s face slips across it,

hoping a wild pig or a hungry deer

will be suddenly caught by surprise.

Above the tree-line wine hills

with frozen dried out saps

still clinging to the vine

can feel the sifting wind

as it plucks its way through

the hedgerows.

He warms his body with alcohol

under the weight of the moon

as a deer slithers by

the thin dark trees gnawing

at bark and fallen leaves

and the shallow pools of water

the late winter night forms.

They look through the darkness

knowing that nothing protects them

but the warmth within.

Steven Pelcman

Fourth River magazine (A Hunter Waits-fall 2011)

Between the Lost and the Forgotten

The night comes

and someone always goes with it

as he shuffles by

dressed in only a diaper

unsure of where the bedroom is.

His hands know the music

of small things

as he walks, almost enchantingly,

on a pure white floor

full of a wife’s discipline.

He travels in circles thinking

that his is a little death

the dark will not grieve over

and tightens his face

as insects do to unknown sound.

He does not belong

to the silence yet

and goes on imagining

where a straight line

can take him.

Steven Pelcman

The Baltimore Review (spring 2012 edition)

      

 A Gathering

The night in winter

does not roll in lazily.

Instead it bursts over the city

like a dark wound

spreading quickly.

There is a park we pass

on the way into the city

near an old Russian church

off of Tulla street

where old men huddle

over a small fire.

Their shadows press tightly

like a clump of trees

listening to the darkness

chanting a prayer lost

in the wind

only the dying

would remember.

They are not alone

as black birds

like mobsters

stalk the snowy field

burying their own shadows

into the hard ground.

They congregate like rigs

on a Texas oil field

exploiting the earth

with their beaks

until the moon

is a piece of gold

  

hurtling before them

but they do not fly away,

they leap and stretch

their necks out as if drunk

on cold air, and the men

join in by stomping

to keep their feet warm

and clapping their hands

to shake off the chill.

This is the dance

of the forgotten

that silently migrate

and know no difference

between day or night.

One by one they leave

and drift away

to the sound of church bells

that echo against the darkness.

 

Steven Pelcman

The Warwick Review (winter 2013edition)

Acceptance

His frail body rises and saunters

to the sounds of Irish wind

over the bog stumbling at 4AM

without a care in the dark

to the bathroom

with a thankful lingering sigh

and whiskey-mumbling lips

still clinging to the last round.

He clears his throat

as if rehearsing for a final song

and returns to the dark

hallway and the stale smell

of his pipe that guides him

to the right room,

to where his wife had belonged,

to where her outline remains

but it is the unexpected prayers

afterwards that breaches

the joint bedroom wall

and takes even the darkness

by surprise and yet

how alike they are,

still, alone, godly patient

for the first single thread of light.

Steven Pelcman

Westview magazine (Southwestern Oklahoma State University 2016)

Andrej

Walking into the spring light
and out of the shadows
he left behind
to stand by the fire
made him a believer

in the dark secrets
grandma told him
he would understand in time.
And so he became grandpa’s
first responder;

the little helper
who inched his way
closer to the rising magic
of a barbecue flame
turning black coal

as white as sunlight.
He masked his face
against the smoke
with his tiny palm
and squeezed his eyes

half-closed and froze
in the burning glare
the way forest animals do
until grandma assured him
that the bucket of water

grandpa keeps nearby
will save them
and keep them safe
the way his fingers feel
in grandma’s hand.

Steven Pelcman

Poetry Salzburg Review (2012 edition)

Thought of the day

We have witnessed particular social activities in the public within the last 6 months. It may be easy to dismiss things due to media agendas, the normal business of making money which is attracted by events that gain loads of publicity and often becomes social media celebrations, so to speak but the social ills of society are for real. America has experienced many stages of conflict regarding race, prejudice and so on throughout the years from abuse, labeling people as commodities or aiming the ills of the world at one religion, etc. Stages and time periods have seen everything from slavery to putting Japanese people into camps, to blaming everything on Jews to race riots and so on and with each conflict there has been both positive evolution as well as many struggles and challenges that America has witnessed including political abuse, corruption, death, hangings, KKK, assassinations, new laws and all of the history has been about conflict, a lack of respect, understanding, and acceptance. The country has for most of its history been a divided nation including during the Revolutionary war. The division has often been incited by hatred and fear such as the 1950s and the threat of communism, a political practice, belief and threats that actually never existed. There has never really been communism but there have been many dictators practicing aspects of many political structures which have been opposed to the free market democracy America practices. After all, exactly who was punished for doing what during the 1950s other than the Rosenbergs and that was for selling and handing over American secrets illegally as they were spies and there have been others since but the point is that that was not about communism-it was about a government trying to steal American secrets and that has taken place a ton of times by many governments including America over the years. The point is that as a people, America has been brainwashed to believe in the agendas put forward by politicians, the media and so on and it has served its purpose, one heavily protested by other governments and peoples throughout the world because America has been wrong as much as it has been right. If another country had an NSA and practiced what America does how would America react?

After all of that, we are at a place where, in my opinion, we are going backward, back to a time when race conflict and all that comes with it has become more open than at any other time since the 1960s-70s.

At this time in world history with the Middle East full of war and pain and destined to probably continue for many years, with the Chinese stepping outside their region as literally occupying the South East Asian part of the world, with terrorist organizations springing up everywhere, with the North Korean threat, with Russian aggression on the rise, with globalization and a 24/7 mentality that has indeed impacted social structures and the mentality of people everywhere, with the media, fear, a lack of cultural understanding so centrally at the core of values which have regressed in many respects, with trade, pollution, global warming, which unbelievably so many do not accept exists, with Europe and immigration and the far right gaining power everywhere, Do you really think that having  DONALD TRUMP in the White House with all of these challenges and with the foundation he has helped to create that you can now all of a sudden  put the genie back in the bottle? He is the American president and that has to be respected but in thinking of his own values and behavior and knowing that America is showing its scars, wounds, pain, hatred, lack of acceptance, inability to integrate and being able to stop the racism and fear that it is showing its true character on so many levels that it may be returning to an age when all of this was fought out on the streets. This does not mean that there aren’t those who know better and reject what is going on but the entire point is that it still reflects America as a country unable to come together and realize exactly what its identity is and/or what it wants it to be. And with all of this going on do you really think it is in America’s best interests that Trump is in the White House?

Just a thought of the day!

Steven