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.

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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.