Christien Gholson
Christien Gholson is the author of several books of poetry, including The Next World (Shanti Arts), Absence: Presence (Shanti Arts) and All the Beautiful Dead (Bitter Oleander); along with a novel, A Fish Trapped Inside the Wind (Parthian Books). He is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize in poetry, with work appearing in Ecotone, Permafrost, Flyway, Banyan Review, The Shore, Hotel Amerika, Tiger Moth Review, and The Sun, among other journals. He lives in Oregon, works as a somatic-oriented mental health therapist at a clinic collective. https://christiengholson.blogspot.com/
Imagination
Imagination:
The ability to form mental images of things that are not present to the senses
or not considered to be real.
1.
She doesn’t look into his eyes,
focuses on his cardboard sign:
“Iraq Veteran – Homeless –
Please Help.” “I’m so sorry,”
she says, gives him a dollar.
“I can’t imagine what you’ve
been through.” I imagine she
is confused, maybe sad, as she
moves across the parking lot,
so many on the streets, no one
to help, what else can she do?
I imagine her soul might one
day decide to strike out on its
own, towards the mountains,
in search of justice, parity, peace.
2.
I remember a Vietnam Vet who
lived in a nearby trailer, circled
by chain-link and razor-wire. He
sometimes sat on his front steps,
alone, always alone, fingers jab-
bing air, arguing with someone
or something I could not see.
What betrayal leads to the fear
of being touched, fear of all con-
tact? I imagine everyone had
betrayed him. I imagine, because
of this, he believed he had betray-
ed himself. I imagine he was
arguing with his soul, who was
constantly threatening to leave,
strike out for the mountains, and
never return.
3.
The Iraq Vet looks across the lot
at the mountains beyond. I im-
agine all our souls – mine, his,
and the soul of the woman who
gave him a dollar – have escaped,
are right now heading up there,
into cooler realms, among ferns,
moving fir shadow to fir shadow,
like resistance fighters, like guar-
dian angels, like thieves, stealing
eggs and sleeping in caves…
