Andre F. Peltier

GHOSTS OF YPSILANTI

Ypsilanti casts long shadows

from Woodruff’s Grove

to The Norris Block.

Ghosts of Union dead

return to the ancient depot

and haunt the students,

the cyclists, the poets

of reconstruction hellfire dawn.

When those nervous boys

convened on River St.

before their southern odyssey,

when the bright-eyed youth

boarded those cars

heading to blood and destruction,

they boarded those cars

with smiles on their lips

and bayonets in their eyes.

South Mountain

and The Siege of Corinth

saw the red rivers of Ypsilanti,

the red deluge of Washtenaw County.

Those boys choked

the vertebrae of the Confederacy;

they cut off the head

of the Chattanooga Timber,

its fearful rattle

lonely and lost.

When Ypsilanti froze

in the ice of ’97,

the ice of ’02,

we stayed warm under the blankets

of Huron River stones,

under the blankets

of catfish, crappie, and carp.

When we were buried

in the snows of ’99,

we stayed warm

with the beer of Depot Town

and the pancakes of Cross St.

Those ghosts of Union dead

kept us warm as they haunted

the bell-tower

and rang their haunted song,

lonely and lost.

Andre F. Peltier (he/him) is a Lecturer III at Eastern Michigan University where he teaches literature and writing. He lives in Ypsilanti, MI, with his wife and children. His poetry has recently appeared in various publications like CP Quarterly, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, Novus, About Place, and Fahmidan Journal, and most recently he has had a poem accepted by Lavender and Lime Literary. In his free time, he obsesses over soccer and comic books. @aandrefpeltier