On Memorial Day
by Lylanne Musselman
I’m on another bored walk,
pacing a treadmill in Toledo,
Ohio, and the TV flashes Jim
Nabors singing Back Home Again
in Indiana, his ritual right
before The Greatest Spectacle
in Racing, where men and
women go 500 miles around
and around in the Circle City,
and sudden goosebumps rise—
sentimental over my Indiana,
where I was born, educated,
grew to be me, left family and
friends behind—with the sycamores
and moonlight on the Wabash,
when old Gomer sings
“I long for my Indiana home,”
memories come racing
back, days spent staying
with my beloved grandparents—
long gone, the carefree antics
of my youth—long gone, loves
I left or never thought would leave—
long gone. Before long
the song is over, balloons lift,
engines roar, my heart beats fast,
as I walk in place, through the blur
of tears and race cars—
my life in Indiana,
given the checkered flag.
Bio: Lylanne Musselman is a native Hoosier with many family, friendship, and poetry ties that keep her returning often. An award winning artist and poet, she has been published in many literary journals and anthologies. She’s authored three chapbooks, and co-authored Company of Women: New and Selected Poems (Chatter House Press, 2013) with Jayne Marek and Mary Sexson. Although, in 2011, she moved to Toledo, Ohio, she continues teaching online writing classes for Ivy Tech Community College, Indianapolis.
by Lylanne Musselman
I’m on another bored walk,
pacing a treadmill in Toledo,
Ohio, and the TV flashes Jim
Nabors singing Back Home Again
in Indiana, his ritual right
before The Greatest Spectacle
in Racing, where men and
women go 500 miles around
and around in the Circle City,
and sudden goosebumps rise—
sentimental over my Indiana,
where I was born, educated,
grew to be me, left family and
friends behind—with the sycamores
and moonlight on the Wabash,
when old Gomer sings
“I long for my Indiana home,”
memories come racing
back, days spent staying
with my beloved grandparents—
long gone, the carefree antics
of my youth—long gone, loves
I left or never thought would leave—
long gone. Before long
the song is over, balloons lift,
engines roar, my heart beats fast,
as I walk in place, through the blur
of tears and race cars—
my life in Indiana,
given the checkered flag.
Bio: Lylanne Musselman is a native Hoosier with many family, friendship, and poetry ties that keep her returning often. An award winning artist and poet, she has been published in many literary journals and anthologies. She’s authored three chapbooks, and co-authored Company of Women: New and Selected Poems (Chatter House Press, 2013) with Jayne Marek and Mary Sexson. Although, in 2011, she moved to Toledo, Ohio, she continues teaching online writing classes for Ivy Tech Community College, Indianapolis.