Autumn
2000
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| D.H. Melhem |
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| RIVERSIDE PARK |
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Time spaces: clouds and smoke walkers and riders, backs dwindling into landscape, those on the left, advancing along fences, their time, before buildings, their time, with levels of people in them, separately pacing. Gulls like ducks float downriver. A boat sails through its time. One crabapple, unattained, prolongs its season on a topmost branch. I too hold on to images: a pigeon's walk, how the head dips forward at each step that seeks the grass, how its brown-and-white feathers are patched with purple, how the trees align between breezes, how a man, crash helmeted, rides his bike, and a woman moves in kneepads and armpads toward a bench; how trust settles here, in the sun, on a promenade reasonably smooth. Bike rider pauses to straddle the stone lookout, and a woman, leashed dogs, litter paper in hand (before the public benches), unleashes farther on Paddle ball on the lawn divider. To my conceptual eye: the ball permanently in air. Late afternoon coolness draws through the leaves another time. DH Melhem has written four books of poetry, one novel, two critical works on Black poets, and a creative writing workbook. She has also provided chapters in seven books, including critical works and an encyclopedia, had a musical drama produced, and published over 50 essays. She has read across the country, in venues ranging from the Library of Congress and New York’s Town Hall to libraries, universities, schools and cafes.
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