*
Jon D. Lee is the author of three books, including An Epidemic of Rumors: How Stories Shape Our Perceptions of Disease, and These Around Us. His poems have appeared, or are forthcoming, in Sierra Nevada Review, Connecticut River Review, The Laurel Review, Oregon Literary Review, and Clover, A Literary Rag, as well as the anthology Follow The Thread, and a craft essay on how humor creates motion and meaning in poetry is forthcoming in The Writer’s Chronicle. He has an MFA in Poetry from Lesley University, and a PhD in Folklore. Lee teaches at Suffolk University, and spends his spare time with his wife and children.

Jon D. Lee

Gesunkenes Kulturgut

—Quabbin Reservoir, MA

When more was required than could be freely given,

We dammed the valley and disincorporated the towns,

Forced the people to sell their homes. We ripped up

The train tracks and tore down the trees, scraped away

The topsoil and razed the buildings, left only cellar holes.

In defense, we moved the dead, carted their bodies

To different holes uphill, left them their names. Then

We watched the water cover what we’d done.

Eventually,

Someone set an easel on the shore: slash of sage for trees,

Cerulean and speckled white above, a few black vees.

And just beyond the canvas, the old roads that still led

Down the banks to slip below the surface & crisscross

Unseen somewhere far below.

— Jon D. Lee

_________________________________________

To have your work considered for the Lyrical send it to:
Doug Holder, 25 School St.; Somerville, MA 02143
dougholder@post.harvard.edu