Buncombe County
I wasn’t born there but lived there.
The place my parents named when I asked
about the unknown. More has followed:
why the past shines down my spine
when we drive across Unaka, toward Farner,
and I get the feeling we are being driven
by the light. Our Appalachian
dead—gone down where the hollow
won’t let them speak save in shivers.
~
Summar West was born and raised in East Tennessee and currently resides in Montpelier, Vermont. Summar’s poems and prose have been published in Appalachian Heritage, Appalachian Journal, Tar River Poetry, Ellipsis, Numero Cinq, and forthcoming in 491.
~
return to poetry home
