Carrots / More Than Words by William Ogden Haynes

Carrots

After the fire, they stood in the pilsner light of a late
summer afternoon, squinting through the still-rising

smoke from the rubble. They were looking at the
bones of their family home scorched black, with only

the chimney left standing like a gravestone. Ancestors
of the family had lived in that old shotgun house for a

hundred years. But now, they’ve lost everything. All
that remains is a seared, crinkled snapshot, darkened

silverware, a ceramic doll turned black, a charred
refrigerator, cracked dinnerware, and skeletons of burnt

furniture. The house was the anchor of the family through
four generations and those irreplaceable burned artifacts

marked the milestones of their lives. But soon, the memories
will gradually fall away, like when grandma washed carrots

from the garden in the kitchen sink, flushing the soil they
grew up in, down the drain, as if they came from nowhere.




More Than Words

You read the words. They speak of love
and loss, dreams and despair, of the

overlooked beauty in the mundane. But,
a poem, if written well, goes beyond the

literal meaning and grammar. It begins
as a small disruption you can’t ignore, a

mosquito that comes and goes, whining
in your ear. Poetry borrows the familiar

and gives it back transformed into something
relevant to you. That love it describes, becomes

your girlfriend, and the loss speaks of your
grandmother’s death. It unlocks a room you’re

already in and strikes a match, lighting it
just enough for you to see the revelation.

Poetry does not explain but stimulates. A
poem is more than words on a page. It’s about

the moment you find yourself in a stranger’s
work and feel it was written for you alone.

William Ogden Haynes is a poet and author of short fiction from Alabama who was born in Michigan. He has published several collections of poetry and many of his poems and short stories have appeared in literary journals and anthologies. http://www.williamogdenhaynes.com.