A Poem: 'Welcome'

On an ancient doorway’s thresholdI pause, not contained or released. A hardwood frame defines departureand arrival, a permanence the nomadand refugee seek where they settle at last.

They carry their stories in goat skin and blanket, in the grime of wind shield sand the smell of onion broth, spices that make scents of the wind that brings the unfamiliar into parlor and kitchen.

This opening recognizes what a traveler needs—a small portion of whatever relieves the road’s weight and rinses dust from tired shoes, a place protected from the teeth of wind and sun.

Across a field, a tree opens the hand of its bare branches, green buds piercing morning’s chill. By a sturdy hearth we accept the spaces between words and silences where we warm to each other.

 Steve Abbott co-hosts The Poetry Forum, the Midwest’s longest-running poetry reading series, and edits Ohio Poetry Association’s annual journal “Common Threads.” His work has appeared in dozens of journals, including “The Connecticut Review,” “Birmingham Poetry Review,” “Rattle,” and “Spoon River Poetry Review.” He has published four chapbooks of poetry, and his full-length collection, “A Green Line Between Green Fields,” is forthcoming from Kattywompus Press. Purchase Issue 6 and become an ALIVE subscriber.Photography by Attilio D’Agostino.More poems:“The News” by Stephen D. Schroeder“Triptych for An American Backyard” by Jay Erickson“Elegy For A Broken Part” by Alison C. Rollins