Tim Kahl
Tim Kahl [http://www.timkahl.com] [https://soundcloud.com/tnklbnny] is the author of five books of poems, most recently Omnishambles (Bald Trickster, 2019) and California Sijo (Bald Trickster, 2022). He is also an editor of clade song [http://www.cladesong.com]. He builds flutes, plays them and plays guitars, ukuleles, charangos and cavaquinhos as well. He currently teaches at California State University, Sacramento, where he sings lieder while walking on campus between classes.
All the Mystery in Ohio
That girl we knew who married the famous
linebacker, she died too young and the write-up
in The Dispatch had her beaming in a black hat,
a real Ohio beauty. But in high school we knew
she was out of our league. She had perfected
that put-down look that stopped us in our
tracks cold. She understood her life in terms
of positioning. We just wanted to be weird.
And look, now she’s six feet under and
confiding in nematodes, playing the earthworms
off the earwigs, and my friend, whose humor
aimed at her heart but more often went over
her head, lives in Basque country now and
conspires against the Castilians. Which way
the pointed flag of Ohio will steer a life is
beyond comprehension. My friend tells me
Basque women are stubborn. He says it’s
a common joke in all of Spain that no one
sleeps with them. It sounds like he’s not
getting laid right now. But he’s resourceful
and knows a thing or two. For instance,
he knows how to cover hair loss. He knows
if you cover it with a beret, you tilt it to the left
to signal you’re against the government.
I ask him if I wear a beret with long hair
whether I’ll look like a famous girl scout.
But he is back to waxing nostalgic.
The famous linebacker has become a Jesus freak.
That girl we knew said God gave her breast
cancer for a reason. This God of hers seems
to lack any subtlety, seems to get a low
score for sense of humor too. But that’s
the kind of guy she always wanted—
top of the food chain, revered, almighty,
issuing commands dripping with purpose,
yet impossible to pin down. So I tell
my friend to keep ‘em guessing
and he does because
he is the embodiment
of all the mystery in Ohio.
