ISAIAH T. WATTS
Austin, Indiana
About Isaiah T. Watts
Views from a Pole Barn
We put up that pole barn
with galvanized nails—
dang near square—
on edge of a rusted bean field.
Kickin back and forth
through a graveyard
of leaves and sawdust, hangin
on nailers—lean n’ swing
through harvest dust.
What is life
without death?
Seeds to beans, pine
to posts, nailers,
and band boards that bind
like blood that carries
through us our old man’s curses
and Estwing swings© 2010, Isaiah T. Watts
This poem may not be reprinted or reposted without the author's written permission.
Isaiah comments: I wrote this poem the night after I finished building a pole barn. Before I wrote it, I thought about resonant images from the day: leaves, pine, beans, knuckle-blood, saw dust, and others. Also, I considered the way a former life makes way for a new life, the way a father’s eye color may determine his son’s eye color, and the way Christ’s death made a way for me to have life.
2010
About Isaiah T. Watts:
I’m 23 years old. I’ve spent my whole life in a rural town called Austin, Indiana. It was named after Austin, Texas
by a group of veterans who fought in the Mexican-American War. People in the town work hard, but life is laid back; it’s simple.
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