The Bends

 Jim LaVilla-Havelin

November 8, 2021

It seems to me, the way out to Big Bend,

which friends we’ve sent out thataway have found

absolutely empty, free of anything to see,

is much fuller than that, if you consider it

and remember things like the stop at Langtry, 

the dusty last gas, last gasp, in Sanderson,

that spot on the highway where we were

greeted by a large antlered animal in the center

of the road which I identified as your father,

and

the way the peaks begin to serrate

the horizon

the closer you get –

until unprepossessing Marathon,

which boasts

The Gage, the railroad you can hear at night rumbling by,

and the hotel’s restaurant which has at times been very

very good, and not much else, though assessments

of this sort depend so much on who is looking, and

what they hope to see.

Jim LaVilla-Havelin is the author of five books of poetry. He is a poet, editor, and community arts activist - the Poetry Editor for the San Antonio Express-News/Houston Chronicle, the San Antonio Coordinator for National Poetry Month, and the 2019 City of San Antonio's awardee for Distinction in the Arts - Literary. He teaches senior citizens, incarcerated youth, the Young Women's Leadership Academy's Young Poets Society, and workshops in museums and libraries.