Profound Thoughts--By John Zedolik--United States

Profound Thoughts                                     

She thinks of pumpkins, as it is

the ripe core of fall, when those

spheres suggesting the color

of the setting sun

rise from memory to the earth

through tendrils,

like full notes in 4/4 time

from a gramophone that never

becomes obsolete

and lie as evidence of summer’s

push to flower and proliferate over

the soil up into and including the air

where we stand, stirring her to send

those thoughts, root deep, meeting

those shafts, stalks rising to leaf

and fruit full of summer’s heat,

soft weeks just past

For thirteen years, John Zedolik taught English and Latin in a private all-girls school, and in 2010 completed his Ph.D., in which he focused on the pragmatic comedy of the Canterbury Tales. Currently, he is an adjunct instructor at Chatham University in Pittsburgh. However, he has had many jobs in his life including archaeological field assistant, obituary writer, and television-screen-factory worker. His iPhone is now his primary poetry notebook, and he hopes his negotiation with technology in regard to this ancient art form continues to be successful.