{"id":4191,"date":"2015-05-09T19:09:57","date_gmt":"2015-05-09T19:09:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/?p=4191"},"modified":"2015-05-09T19:09:57","modified_gmt":"2015-05-09T19:09:57","slug":"adam-where-are-you-a-poem-by-franchot-ballinger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/adam-where-are-you-a-poem-by-franchot-ballinger\/","title":{"rendered":"Adam, Where Are You? A Poem by Franchot Ballinger"},"content":{"rendered":"

 
\n 
\nI wasn\u2019t long for that world.
\nI was treated like dirt.
\nOK, so I didn\u2019t get to choose my
\nName, but I\u2019m my own man, I\u2019ll tell you.
\nI got to name the filthy beasts,
\nWho were already there when I
\nWoke from that dreamless, selfless sleep
\nI\u2019d been in. What a greeting they gave me\u2014
\nTheir snarling bared teeth, claws and hooves
\nMauling the air before me.
\nThey were something else, and I
\nWas more than glad to say what they were.
\nIt was like the names kept them off.
\n 
\nThen she happened, sudden.
\nI woke from a nap (This one a dreaming-of-me
\nSleep). And there she was. Now, where\u2019d she come from?
\nNot something I could (or would have) dreamt up.
\nI got to name her too: Eve.
\nProphetic, eh?
\nIf such things as beasts and she must be,
\nThere\u2019s comfort in giving a name.
\nStill, the orders were to take her
\nAs my flesh and bone. One,
\nWe were supposed to be\u2014like lichen or pondlight,
\nI guess\u2014as if there were no edges to us.
\n 
\nWhat a puzzle. But, you know,
\nSometimes that being one stuff wasn\u2019t bad.
\nI\u2019d wake in the morning from my dreams,
\nHer head on my chest,
\nAnd the light would be like a lilt in the air\u2014
\nA choral radiance greeting us\u2014and we
\nSmiled a lot in a certain dim-witted way.
\n 
\nBut most often we\u2019d stand staring at each other,
\nDull as dirt, stunned as deer caught in torchlight.
\nShe clearly wasn\u2019t me and I wasn\u2019t her,
\nNot that I cared to be. So, all in all, I for one
\nWas only too glad to get out. Never mind the rumors\u2026
\nI chose.
\nDuring all the \u201che said, she said\u201d after the trouble,
\nI felt something crack inside, like a flawed pot
\nOver-heated in all the hiss and boil of the tiff.
\nFrom then on, it was all careless looks and words
\nFlicked like snot from fingertips.
\nThe light in her eyes flew off
\nLike a puff of milkweed down across an empty field at dusk.
\nI saw there was nothing
\nBetween us but echoing air. I
\nCouldn\u2019t stay, had to be free, and left in dark of night.
\nDamned if she didn\u2019t follow. I
\nCould sense her skulking out behind me. I
\nDidn\u2019t look for fear I\u2019d get yanked back. Maybe
\nI should have; maybe the old evil eye
\nWould have sent her back. But She
\nCaught up, and we stumbled dumbly along.
\n 
\nAs we still do.
\nNow, most days and in the long, long
\nNights, we scarcely converse.
\nWhen we do our voices seem to caress themselves,
\nAnd something in them spills and spills
\nLike rain down denuded hills.
\nIs this karma, or what?<\/strong>
\n 
\n 
\n\"Franchot<\/a>
\n 
\n 
\nIn retirement after nearly 40 years teaching English at the University of Cincinnati, Franchot Ballinger has continued volunteering with the Cincinnati Nature Center in various capacities and is also a spiritual care volunteer with Hospice of Cincinnati. His poems have appeared in numerous poetry journals in print and on-line.<\/strong>
\n 
\n 
\nrobin@artvilla.com<\/a>
\nPoetryLifeTimes<\/a>
\nPoetry Life & Times<\/a><\/strong>
\neditor@artvilla.com<\/a>
\nwww.artvilla.com<\/a>
\nArtvilla.com<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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    I wasn\u2019t long for that world. I was treated like dirt. OK, so I didn\u2019t get to choose my Name, but I\u2019m my own man, I\u2019ll tell you. I got to name the filthy beasts, Who were already there when I Woke from that dreamless, selfless sleep I\u2019d been in. What a greeting … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[620,43],"tags":[18,136,3],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4191"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4191"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4195,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4191\/revisions\/4195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}