Vox Populi
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Jason Baldinger: a people’s history of williamson west virginia
~~
we could have gone to the prom
with the coal house girls
crushed red velvet dresses
color drawn richer in humidity
they wait for dreams and corsages
to die just like romeo and juliet
instead we holed up
in a burned-out department store
rechristened junk shop
sifting boxes of ten cent
black and white photos
watching a people’s history
of williamson west virginia
as a remaindered flip book
camera flash illuminates
moments heads stretch above water
a new used car sitting
in pea gravel under a paw paw
the sun shining off the kanawha
as she sat neatly on a picnic bench
smoking uncles, messy rubberleg toddlers
bee hive aunts, gaunt halloween witches
coal black faced miners
carrying lunches in gunny sacks
not one graduation in site
no one ever actually smiling
only distance read in eyes
focused on the ledge
of another mountain range
these boxes, never rescued
sepia acid stained
or rusted pipe washed
eight lanes of trains tracks
that led out of town
now left to oxidize
burnt sienna memories
color faded ghosts
haunt photo paper alone
~~~~
Jason Baldinger has spent a life in odd jobs, if only poetry was the strangest of them he’d have far less to talk about. Somewhere in time he has traveled the country, and wrote a few books, including “The Lower 48” (Six Gallery Press) and the chapbook “The Studs Terkel Blues” (Night Ballet Press).
Photograph and poem copyright 2024 Jason Baldinger
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A library school friend became the map and photograph librarian at the MN Historical Society. He showed me a huge cardboard box full of black and white or sepia photos donated, but unlabeled. The images of a train wreck, a girl tricked out in ballerina costume, and on and on, had become uncoupled from context. Baldinger takes such a collection, but with a bit more focus, and works it into art. Bravo.
And his poem also reminds me of W.G. Sebald’s novels, where he picked up evocative but unlabeled photos in junkshops, and wrote narratives using them as illustrations. Here Baldinger does his own variation of the same process, and it works with his memory-images. Glad to see this one.
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Thank you for this evocative and spot on response, Jim. So glad you are part of this discussion.
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It’s a pleasure and an honor to be part of the conversation. So many great people here.
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As usual, Jason Baldinger leaves images burned in our minds and brings back our own so remarkably similar.
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yes he does!
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