ANNIVERSARY, FOURTH

it’s morning on July’s Fourth

we set out

on our ritual walk

where Washington’s untried army

once heroically crossed

high on this hillside

thirteen concrete wedges

frame the base

of a strangely empty flagpole

where I always expect

to witness thirteen-stars

stones remember the nameless

of Trenton’s battles

— none of whom died of wounds

but rather frostbite, exposure

— worsened by December itself

tombstones strongly incised

with resonant dates:

“1777” ... “1778” ...

each stone dedicated

to one militant colony:

so different,

forever joined

here above

our significant river

a lone man bicycles

into this flagless shrine

—dismounting in reverence—

sits upon a particular mossy stone

which may reveal his colony

in this twenty-first century

we turn, return

toward the original Crossing site

back at the grave-site

liberty’s pilgrim remains rapt

— a stone among stones

Carolyn Foote Edelmann lived in New Hope from 1984 into 1987. Her protest poetry served Dump the Pump regarding the endangered Delaware River. Recent publications include Cool Women, Volume VII, a group she co-founded, U.S. 1 Poetry Worksheets. and U.S. 1 Newspaper’s Fiction Issue, Princeton. Her earlier Gatherings was launched aboard the QEII; Between the Dark and Daylight earned press praise of publication.

Poet’s Corner is curated by Bucks County Poet Laureate Emeritus Tom Mallouk and supported by a grant to the Bucks County Herald Foundation made possible by Marv and Dee Ann Woodall.

To submit a poem for consideration, email it to Heraldpoetscorner@gmail.com. If the poem has been previously published, please say where it first appeared.

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