By Doris Nell
Many years ago my husband Bruce gave me a favorite book mark that read: “To love God is to know many things.” Mentally, I added “especially poetry, not just classic works, but contemporary ones.” Little did I think my son would provide me with such a poem.
In the summer of 2010 Aaron left Richmond, Indiana, with his bike and trailer traveling to Columbia, Missouri, to attend the birth of his niece, Lindsay; then moved on to Chicago, then pedaled on through Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, trekked on to Ontario, then Buffalo, and down to D C. After visiting his cousin in Washington, he headed home via Maryland, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Ohio returning to Richmond. Logging 3,800 miles, he pedaled for 4 months for $2,500, guerilla camping mostly, taking in a motel every 7+ days. But it was a routine trip from Richmond to Indianapolis for 70 miles that inspired the poem below. During that brief trip he saw a small handmade sign nailed on a tree in the tiny town of Gem, Indiana, where readers were told “Jesus is Comin.”
In Gem, Indiana there’s
A sign on a tree reads
Jesus is Comin’
It seems a little less spooky
a little less apocalyptical
and more elliptical
more like a friend might be
coming back into town
and someone had tacked up
a sign so everyone would know
cause they missed him
eager to go out one night
walk the fields
head to the lake and
tell stories together
like old times