Lynnette Vega is a native Californian. She has lived in New York City, New Jersey, and for the last 50 years in the beautiful town of La Honda in the Santa Cruz mountains. She is an artist and art therapist. Most of her work life has been centered around facilitating groups for older adults and those with disabilities.
Poem on Belonging
TOM & GRACIE, 1980*
(Written in the concrete remains of “Boots & Saddle” Lodge in La Honda)
In this small town
history is not
an abstract thing
happening to someone
you’ve never met
in a place
whose name you might recognize
from a 5th grade
geography class
History is composed
each day
by the people
whose lives
intersect with yours
The ones
you say hello to
when walking down
the street
those you meet
at the post office
or general store
Though
some say
the bad thing
about living in a small town
is that everyone
knows your business
The good thing
is that
many people care
And with that caring
the town can respond
as if it were not
made up of
many individuals
But instead
a solid mass-like body
And when
one part is in pain
the whole body aches
in sympathy
Allowing our lives
to touch
and not
look away.
I knew them enough
to say that
“I knew them”
which is to say
that through 7 and 12 years,
respectively,
I really didn’t know them at all
And, Tom shot Gracie dead
the other night
then sped away
and self-destructed
in what the newspapers called
a “spectacular crash”
Who were these people
and could anyone fathom
the convoluted love
that drew them together
and pulled them apart
literally dozens of times
Only to come
to an end one night
in rage and pain and death.
That happened
four nights ago
And yet the sound
of that bullet
keeps reverberating
through these streets
as if it were still
whizzing through
the air.
Copyright © 2019 by Lynnette Vega. This poem originally appeared in Speak Poetry Vol. 1. Used with permission of the author.
Speak Poetry in San Mateo County 