Poetry

0

“Dumpster Land” was submitted by Steven Janssen, and it was written by his late son, Noah Preston Janssen, Boulder High graduate, class of 2008, who drowned in late July of the same year.

Dumpster Land

by Noah Preston Janssen

Somewhere, a child, he cries through the night
And clings to the only things he knows
The wind, its wisdom, and the rain’s soft sounds
And the blanket of falling snow
There is a place where vagabonds roam
Where the dumpster meets the sea
A place where we all must go
Where from the body, the soul is free
I hear the child’s falling tear
As I lie face down on my bed
But rather than splashing into the ground
It heads towards the sky instead
The maid cleans up the rainbow’s mess
And the sun decides to sleep
The only thing besides the moon
Is the broom’s weary sweep
The teardrop finds the ocean floor
And my heart comes home as well
I don’t really know where heaven is
Maybe it’s the same thing as hell
And my heart, it is laughing loud
I have come back to my roots
My blood has become one with my friends
The eagles, ants, and owl’s hoots
I love this street I walk along
And this earth on which I stand
The lessons I’ve learned within this life
That when I jump, I might not land
In the end, we are all the same
We all return back to the sand
And we find ourselves right back at the start
Back in dumpster land

Send poetry submissions of 250 words or fewer to poetry@boulderweekly.com.