Berkshire Artist Spotlight: Bill Yehle, “For Caiden”
With the support of Assets for Artists, CARE SYLLABUS put out a call in the Fall of 2021 for local artists to share work exploring the different meanings of care in their lives. Our first submission in this series is “For Caiden,” a poem by Bill Yehle dedicated to his grandson.
For Caiden
in a dream
you
and by you
i mean someone
was asking about a puppy
that was actually a child
in a back seat
of a station wagon
on the bowery
when that was a thing
i remember photos rolled to fit
tucked into a tin can
pride in the palm
of an outstretched hand
offered as story
not metaphor
in anxious
america
in some dreams
there isn’t an horizon
only the tired brick facades
of boxed canyons
and a country’s
broken promises
exhaustion
the hallucinogen
that confuses
spilled ink
with a lost archive
in a dream
you
and by you
i mean a country
is holding a child
in your hand
and measuring the child’s skin
for a new hat
weighing words
against running for your life
i offer another child / photo
from the tuck of the tin can
ask you
and by you
i mean a country
to say i love you
to promise
to never mistake
his skin
for a weapon
in a dream
you
and by you
i might mean you
or somebody
or an entire country
sits in silence when i ask you
to say i love you into
the opening of the tin can
where every child
once lived
and you
and by you
i might mean you
or somebody
or an entire country
can not let your lips
part long enough
to whisper promises
that you won’t keep anyway
in a dream
you
and by you
i mean a country
can’t imagine the anguish
that rips skin open
to allow a country’s history inside
to loot and pillage
imagine that your body
could be taken from you
at any time
that your flesh
could become a protest
in a street
in a dream
you
and by you
i mean you
are too young to understand
the words i love you
not yet a year has passed
you know love but not the word for it
you are still aspiring to stand
or at least to crawl
and i’m telling you things
you can’t possibly understand
and hopefully
will never need to understand
unforgivable things
about a country
in the darkness of a future night
you
and by you
i mean the dark sky
are the secret garden
we forget
every morning
the garden
holding all the horrible
all the hallowed
and you
and by you
i mean you (caiden)
will someday navigate
the space between then
and now
in that space beyond hashtags
(in that space)
know that you are sacred
know that you are a holy land
one holy among the infinity of
all possible
holies