English Poem

Jennifer Cooper
190 North 200 West
Cedar City, Utah 84720
(801) 706-8712
Jcoope33@mymail.slcc.edu

HIDEAWAY VALLEY
In a place he never thought he would return to
Down lanes lined with brush and assorted trees
The mountains outside surround; a shield from the highway
The building with cream-colored siding deceivingly shaped as a barn
A woodshed out back
On a six acre piece of land
Here years were spent in solitude
Back in the day it was a dungeon, a holding cell
For those who were persecuted
The outside world just a far away dream
Wanting to get out
They had dreamt of place where they could run freely
It was quiet now abandoned
One man had returned to receive some absolution
To believe he was truly free
He ran in the field, he climbed a mountain; he rode a motorcycle into the hills
He lay on the floor alone with himself
He tried to think of reasons not to do what he was about to and he could think of none
He cleared a path around the place
He doused it all in gasoline and then he lit a match
He drove away as it all went up in a blaze of gloryThis time he was never to return.