Community Voices

By Tish Davis
Concord Township, Ohio, USA

as blood seeps
from the soldiers’ ears
handmade bone dice
tumble out of crevices
in the hastily built stone wall

After touring the museum, I ride the escalator up and onto the battlefield.  An attendant directs the crowd into the chaos silently motioning us to step in closer, to step down onto the dimly lit viewing platform that encircles Philippoteaux’s, Battle of Gettysburg.

I stand, by chance, near an exploding caisson.  Wood bites from a splintered carriage carve jagged cuts deep in my skin; gunpowder dust—brushed hot and thick—swells my lungs. A wild eyed gelding— riderless, powerful legs in long strides—gallops madly through the cannonade; through the heavy, humid air; through the massive toll.  

first published in Bright Stars, volume 5, Autumn 2014

By Tish Davis
Concord Township, Ohio

A local artist sketches him in full Indian headdress.   At the entrance to the trail, two painters read the short biography about Bill Moose before setting up their easels along the north rim.  A viewing platform overlooks the ravine where brown leaves ferment along the bank of a stream.  Glacial erratics are scattered along the bottom— fallen warriors on flat limestone. Indian Run Falls, heard but not seen.  Voices in the abandoned village.

I’m a few steps behind carrying my camera.  The sunlight is filtered by Maple, Blue Ash, Shagbark Hickory.  An occasional opening exposes roots, granules of dirt freshly creased.   I slip off trail and follow the sounds to the secluded basin where Indian Bill once washed. I remember the biography that I‘ve read: He slept outdoors every night during the summer and once a month in the winter with only a blanket for cover.

Moss covered formations cling to the ledges.  Flowering rockcress juts out into space.   The camera, now wrapped, hidden under a giant sycamore; the light in the spray against my skin.

leaves in a shallow pool
paragraphs of fine print
tacked under glass

*First published in Frogpond, 32:1 (Winter)

Ref:  https://uahistorytrail.upperarlingtonoh.gov/bill-moose-memorial/