The One Who Went Away

 The One Who Went Away

A plow-man: at seventeen
he went to see
what wonders up til then
he'd only gleamed by reading

Melville late into the night.
The lure of the world
wider than the forty acres
bred into his bones

tugged until
blood enraged
he slipped the yoke
and set foot after foot

along the rimy road.
Ten, twenty years swept
from memory
any trace of who he'd been;

the irregularity of his postings
scanter and scanter
brought little news
small comfort to

those he'd left behind.
In time, one by one,
they gave up the ghost,
too busy with their living

to squander a thought
for his whereabouts,
if he ever regretted
his exile's course.

He was the one who went away,
the uncle nobody knew.

The one the odd cousin
had been named for.

A story we'd tell
to friends, to top the one
they'd told about the crazy aunt
who never married;

good for a chuckle,
some salacious speculations
about the skeletons they'd buried
in the familial closets.

Ken e Bujold 2022

Ken e Bujold

© 2022

Reviews

[Neville]

I thought it high time I dived in to see where you have come from .. and am so bloomin glad I did sir .. families eh' who would have em :)

[William Michael Reeves]

Somehow I think it was a good idea he went away. I was one of those boys up late reading Moby Dick. This poem made me think of familiar strangers and unknown neighbors.

[Ken e Bujold]

you may be of two young an age Will. The time I am speaking of has long vanished. When I was a child and we visited grandparents on the farm there was always talk of the odd son (mostly) or daughter who would have been there uncle who simply chose to go, got up and left the farm and never ever was heard from again. In the late 1800s through pre-WWI this was a very common experience for most families. The One Who Went Away, the one my generation sat and listened to stories about.

[William Michael Reeves]

Not so young any more but I am an urban child so I can see why I missed it.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

I love this...there are always those photographs in the old albums of certain people...we ask who they are and are told that it is the crazy old aunt or uncle...the one nobody knew from where he or she came.
j.

[Ken e Bujold]

yep. or if you're of our parents or grandparents generation there always seemed to be the story of that one sibling, aunt uncle who just stood up, walked out the door and vanished into the ether. I was always captivated by those stories, still am though they are not as endearing these days. More often than not now its a tragedy rather than a mystery

[Lathen Griffiths]

Interesting poem Ken, I like that it leaves the reader with more questions than answers, conveying the feeling of a mystery that may never be gotten to the bottom of.

Regards
Lathen

[Ken e Bujold]

yes I agree with your assessment Lathen. Don't know how it was in Wales, but here in my parents time and especially my grandparents days the odds of a family having a son (on rarer occasions a daughter) vanish from the farm and never be heard from again was a rather common occurrence. As a child I was always regaled by such stories

[Lathen Griffiths]

Terribly sad to lose track of peoples lives, but yes I’ve heard of similar cases here.
read moreTerribly sad to lose track of peoples lives, but yes I’ve heard of similar cases here.

[W. Barrett Munn]

I like the beat of this one and I appreciate that it is free verse. Having been a black sheep all my life I can appreciate the sentiments expressed.
W.

[Ken e Bujold]

thanks for the review WB. Glad you appreciate the sentiment. I'm a fellow black sheep, in some ways that odd uncle I speak of towards the poem's end

[Cherrie Palmer]

Welcome to the cafe I look forward to reading more of your writing ✍️
Cherrie

[Ken e Bujold]

Thanks for the welcome Cherrie