Heather Truett
A Conversation Among Mountains Via Wikipedia
The Appalachian Mountains are a system of mountains in eastern North America.
They first formed roughly 480 million years ago and once reached elevations similar
to those of the Alps and the Rocky Mountains
before experiencing natural erosion.
The Appalachian Mountains are a system of mountains that formed the hills
of Eastern Kentucky, where my body came into being and my brain first
formed, and I believed in nearly everything
before experiencing natural erosion.
The Appalachians are a chain barrier to east-west travel. They form a series
of alternating ridgelines and valleys oriented in opposition
to most highways and railroads
running east to west.
The Appalachians are a chain barrier to my returning home. They form a series
of conservative political agendas that are oriented in opposition
to most of my ways and the forward
motion of my life.
This range of rocks and hills and trees were once called
the Allegheny Mountains, the Alleghenies, and even Alleghania.
This is the range of rocks and hills and trees and people
that I once called home.
In spite of the existence of the Great Appalachian Valley, many of the main rivers
are transverse to the mountain system axis. The drainage divide
of the Appalachians follows
a tortuous course
In spite of the existence of so much beauty in my homeland, I have found
their homespun attachment to the supposed good ol’ days runs transverse
to my own belief in the need for change. Loving
the land you leave is a torturous course.
The flora and fauna of the Appalachians is diverse. Of great importance
are the many species of salamanders and, in particular, the lungless species
that lives in great abundance concealed
by leaves and debris on the forest floor.
The people of Appalachia are growing more diverse and I have hope
for a very different tomorrow than the coal dusted yesterday that left
my grandpa with Black Lung
and the present full of poverty.
By the end of the Mesozoic Era, the Appalachian Mountains had been eroded
to an almost flat plain. It was not until the region was uplifted during
the Cenozoic Era that the distinctive
topography of the present formed.
By the end of the current era, I have dreams of an ignorance eroded and a poverty
plateaued, new soil lying latent, dark, lush and ready for uplifting,
a distinctive new topography of love
ready to be formed.
Heather Truett is a writer, a mother, and a somewhat heretical pastor’s wife. Her credits include: The Mom Egg, Vine Leaves Literary, Tipton Poetry Journal, Drunk Monkeys, Panoply Zine, and the Young Adult Review Network.
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