Intro by Mike

Hi, I'm Mike and my fun fact was about motorcycles.  I find that to really "get away" from it all, I have to ride, and some of my best thinking is done on my bikes.  I have a DR650 on and off road bike, and I have an old chopped out shovelhead cruiser, which is a 1979 Harley-Davidson FXE model.  The most exotic and fun place I've ever ridden was in the Philippines, where my wife was born, but I've also ridden in China, Australia, and Bali.  If you ever get a chance to go to Bali, take it!  You'll learn more about me as the semester continues but I love art, music, writing, and just being as friendly as possible.  Life is too short to be otherwise.

I spent a lot of time on this poem.  Probably about three hours or so, but even more hours of thinking.  I wanted to sort through my many memories and feelings concerning my nephew, who we just buried a week ago after he committed suicide.  I'll never fathom it all, but writing the poem helped me make something positive, I think, about a very tragic experience.  I tried to end it on the one postive thing we see right now, and that is that his friends have promised to stop being such idiots and stop doing drugs.  I hope they hold that promise.

Here's the poem and a picture of Caleb, too.  He was an amazing kid.

 

Not a Blemish That We Could See

--Isaiah 1:18  Come now, and let us reason together, saith Jehovah: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

Sometimes the world is so bright it blinds. Christmas.

We met on my dad’s and your great granddad’s farm

in southern Minnesota.  It was bitter cold

yet the sun was intense and six inches of snow

the night before turned the plowed fields white.

The road ditches were drifted full for a fast ride. 

You, 15, tore into them with your dad’s Polaris--

the engine howling like something ready to burst . 

You looked like a snowboard punk, rocking

a light blue jacket and tinted yellow goggles.

You gave my wife a wild smile when our turn

came to ride, yet sweetly, you guided her,

“Just hang on tight, Irene. Wrap your arms

around Mike cause it can be real scary.”

Then you told me, “It’s so fast,” and laughed.

I thought this kid may like to fight & joke

but he has a good heart.  12 days later,

your best friends at your funeral described you

as loyal and irreplaceable.  Your brother Jack,

just 11, said you were white like snow.  Perfect.

I didn’t know you as well but when I heard

you’d shot yourself I punched myself so hard

on the thigh that it turned as purple as a Dakota sunset.

It’s going to be a while before I can imagine

you clowning for your friends, making your jaw

jut and walking like you had ants in your crack.

You had said you were gonna buy a Jesus-mobile

and be a warrior to keep your friends off drugs.

Five of them, awash in sorrow for you, have promised

your parents just that.  Until the next life, Caleb, we’ll take it.