Poetry by Scott Ferry

​Thomas Wensing CC



 4/10
 
my son helps me weed the plot
with the salmonberries and raspberries
which has overgrown with grass
and dandelions  
 
once i start killing it is difficult to stop
it is satisfying to yank out tufts
by the hairmatted roots and the dirt
showers us
 
into a different kind of clean it feels right
to have soil on our bodies he stomps
clayfooted and throws weeds into the
wheelbarrow
 
he even helps me throw them into the compost
bin even though he can’t reach the rim
i take each sod clump from his uplifted
arms and lift it in
 
the last few inches then we go inside and wash
and eat meat i realize that life consists
of growing killing and eating
in some arrangement
 
and that each blends into one another
and sometimes i die when i kill
and sometimes i eat my own flesh
in the growing
 
and that soil is the death and the life
in one thick bed and one day i will fall
into it and not get up and my son will lift
my skull to the heavens and
 
lick it clean




​4/17
 
a friend of mine recently lost his father
abruptly without being able to say
goodbye
 
he called me knowing my father died
when i was 24 and asked how long
does this take
 
the grieving i ask which was obvious
i say oh man years sometimes
something comes up
 
and reminds me of him and it pulls at me
like when i hear a joke he would like
or my son gives me a look
 
right off my dad’s face
i’m sorry man i don’t have an easy answer
it fucking sucks
 
it does get easier but it has stayed with me
and i told him i loved him
at the end of the call
 
and thought about my father
a good while until i could feel him
in the room
 
all the air proud and molecules spinning
like an ultraviolet turbine his eyes looking
at me from all sides
 
yes father i know you are there but i wish
you were really here you bastard
and i feel the air crack
 
and smooth into a lake
i like making him laugh from down here
where not much is really funny
 
and the humor breaks through the pain
at just the right times



Scott Ferry helps our Veterans heal as a RN in the Seattle area. His seventh book of poetry, The Long Blade of Days Ahead, is forthcoming from Impspired Press in August 2022.