{"id":3054,"date":"2021-03-31T15:20:02","date_gmt":"2021-03-31T15:20:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/farefwd.com\/?p=3054"},"modified":"2021-06-30T18:15:04","modified_gmt":"2021-06-30T18:15:04","slug":"swallows-over-bellefonte","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/31\/swallows-over-bellefonte\/","title":{"rendered":"Swallows over Bellefonte"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Swallows over Bellefonte<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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By Julia Spicher Kasdorf<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Look at the birds<\/em>, she points, as they swoop
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0and chirp over our town where every cornice
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0refers to the past and anything that matters<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0has already happened:\u00a0seven governors,
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0iron ore and the foundries that forged
trans-continental railroads and civil war, wire<\/p>

for the cables that strung Brooklyn’s bridge
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0from its arches and stretched the wings
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0of the Wright brothers’ flying machine,<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0even Amelia Earhart\u00a0stopped here for lunch,
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0once.\u00a0The swallow’s tails, sleek as Cadillac fins
or boomerang coffee tables,\u00a0black as pillbox hats<\/p>

at the wake for a slain head of state.\u00a0
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Hear them singing? <\/em>I ask.\u00a0We lie on our backs
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0on playground slides next to the brick high school<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0built in ’42, now used for the younger kids.
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>The toxic pie of a fall-out shelter sign,
faded, still hangs by the gym door.<\/p>

They’re having fun!<\/em> she cries. I know that whatever happens\u00a0
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>only happens here, now, in this town where a man
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0guarded the big spring for weeks after 9\/11,<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0and a HAZMAT team raced to the mall to scrape
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>white powder that turned out to be a breath mint,
crushed under someone’s boot. Not that I can keep the sun<\/p>

from sliding behind Purdue Ridge, and it already has,
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>staining the clouds an uncanny orange.\u00a0
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Good job, birds<\/em>, she sings beside me, Good job<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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\u201cSwallows over Bellefont\u201d is published here courtesy of the National Endowment for the Arts; it appears on their website here<\/a> and in <\/em>Poetry in America\u00a0(Pitt Poetry Series, 2011). It is used by permission of the author.<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Julia Spicher Kasdorf<\/strong> is the author of two poetry collections published by The University of Pittsburgh Press: <\/em>Sleeping Preacher (1992)\u2014which received the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize and The Great Lakes Colleges Award for New Writing\u2014and <\/em>Eve’s Striptease (1998). Kasdorf serves as poetry editor for <\/em>Christianity and Literature, and with Michael Tyrell edited the anthology <\/em>Broken Land: Poems of Brooklyn. In addition, she has published a collection of personal essays, <\/em>The Body and the Book: Writing from a Mennonite Life, named the Book of the Year by MLA’s Conference on Christianity and Literature, and a biography, <\/em>Fixing Tradition: Joseph W. Yoder, Amish American. She is an associate professor of English and women’s studies at The Pennsylvania State University, where she directs the MFA program.<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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