A Selected POEM from Approaching shore RON THOMAS WRITER
Steamer Ron Thomas Writer
1951 ten years old we crawl under Steamer’s parents’ house like cavemen God taps me on the shoulder I shrug Him off Steamer strikes a match red tip flares newspaper ignites we stare at burning pages Ron Thomas Writer like we discovered fire newsprint rises in smoke words choke our lungs letters from lost and found ascend through flooring toward our higher education I get a mother lecture Steamer gets a beating same beating he gets Ron Thomas Writer when he cannot learn to read his father beats him with a yardstick measured welts of terror - Dick and Jane the alphabet with its scramble of letters - until he grows big enough to grab his father by the shirtfront Ron Thomas Writer Steamer pole vaults through high school without learning how to read refuses to let beatings turn his heart to ash becomes a translator Ron Thomas Writer of cogs and gears an interpreter of wires and motors a spokesman for machine tools that spark the flint of his confidence into white hot flame a business directed by his hands Ron Thomas Writer at 35 the sale of the business makes financial pages Steamer sets his mind remembers caring advice from a teacher an old Russian man sound each syllable sound the words Ron Thomas Writer he struggles through Harry Potter mouths words of Lonesome Dove teaches himself to read yet even today playing word games his body shudders electric from the red hot wire of his past and once while playing Password I placed my hand on his arm to cool the shaking of his hands. Ron Thomas Writer I want to tell you how we choked on newsprint when Steamer set the words on fire how God still taps me on the shoulder would never use a yardstick to mete out unseen wounds that bleed and scar causing trembling for a lifetime Ron Thomas Writer I want to tell you this but as I try to write it down I keep struggling with the words Ron Thomas Writer |
Ron Thomas Writer