Middle House Review
Jack B. Bedell "Grabble"
Grabble
In this dream, my father is wading out
into the marsh to pick a purple hyacinth flower.
The water’s only up to his knees,
but he’s struggling to pull his feet
through the mud. Why he’d want
that flower makes perfect sense
in this world, so much color under
gray sky, but I know I’ll have to grabble
come morning to understand the music
these ripples make flowing off his steps.
Bio: Jack B. Bedell is Professor of English and Coordinator of Creative Writing at Southeastern Louisiana University where he also edits Louisiana Literature and directs the Louisiana Literature Press. Jack’s work has appeared in Southern Review, Pidgeonholes, The Shore, Okay Donkey, EcoTheo, The Hopper, Terrain, and other journals. His latest collections are Color All Maps New (coming from Mercer University Press, 2021) and No Brother, This Storm (Mercer, 2018). He served as Louisiana Poet Laureate 2017-2019.