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Katrina beheaded all the trees
20 miles from the beach.
Soon after, I caught pneumonia and almost died.
Then I failed Pharmacy school
and so,
began again.

I got a new job and a new ID badge
and saw that my face was fat,
as distinctive as a barely cooked pancake
and I hated it

so I went to the jogging track.

It was asphalt
and coiled like an old painting of
a sea serpent.
And the track was on flat land,
surrounded by those beheaded pines
and yellow, patchy grass.

And the first time I tried,
I couldn’t make a full mile.
I puked and spasmed
and flopped on the grass
and grunted loudly
as if punished by God

but I kept coming.

And one day,
I saw a woodpecker
drilling holes
in the dead tree
closest to the track.

He drilled and drilled
and he never stopped.
When I was there, he was there.

He got used to me
and wouldn’t fly away
when I got close.
I even brought him birdseed
and he chirped
and I liked to think
he was cheering for me.

And for the summer for 2006
that was my life.
I worked and went to track
and ran.
There was nothing else.

I lost 38 pounds.

And I went back
to Pharmacy school
for another try,
and made it through.

Then I returned to the track
to feed the woodpecker,
to show him how I did,
but the county cut his tree down
and he was gone.

I hoped he didn’t take it all too hard.

I told myself that he found another tree
and another jogger,
very giving with the birdseed
and that he was happy.

I hoped
that he made it through just fine
when the time came for him to
begin again.

Ridgeland, MS – 11/3/11