A Visit to the Body Farm
This post is a response to “Back to the Land,” an article that appeared in Orion Magazine 
​https://orionmagazine.org/article/bac... 

​Chelsea Bandalillo takes the readers on a brief tour of the Texas State Forensic Anthropology Research Facility where forensic anthropologists research the decomposition process of cadavers, hoping to learn gems of information that will help them investigate crime scenes. Though I cannot place a specific reason for the thought, I got the impression that she was uncomfortable with the subject matter. Despite the assertion that she tries but cannot see the remains as human, she tours the facility with “eyes open and mouth mostly closed.” 

The short form, in our time-challenged, compressed world, gives readers a snapshot view. Perhaps she chose the short form for that reason, or perhaps she senses potential discomfort for readers and chose the short form so that they will read through the text without putting it down. 
The subject matter provides rich ground for a more in-depth treatment. Though I have not toured the Texas facility or the similar one operated by the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, I have taken the virtual tour of the Knoxville facility http://www.jeffersonbass.com/tour-the... . Dr. William Bass oversees the Knoxville “body farm” and teamed up with writer Jon Jefferson to produce ten volumes of mysteries known as the “Body Farm Series” under the pen name Jefferson Bass. 

Fans of the Jefferson Bass series or the successful television series, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, with its multiple spin-offs, would probably enjoy Bandilillo’s article more than literary readers. They might even read a more in-depth article. Though Bandiillo cannot bring herself to say the word cadaver in reference to the bodies which attract them, the paragraph on butterflies at the end is a nice touch. I would enjoy seeing the butterflies. 

Written as an assignment for an online course on writing nonfiction.

It may have bn the last warm day of the year. 

​A backlit tree delights the eye, but one fall leaf in gold or red, translucent with the sun from an angle behind, makes a striking photograph. Light passes through the leaf as it passes through a cellophane wrapper. As Glen Falls murmurs in the distance, the forest floor has become a carpet in gold, red, and brown. Today, it is strange to think that I wrote the poem "Glen Falls Trail," which cemented the nature poet persona for me near the small waterfall from which I drew the title. That was nearly twelve years ago, in 2007.​

I call Glen Falls diminutive because I live in a land of waterfalls, with Lookout Mountain stretching south and west from my home in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Mountain is a misnomer, for it is a plateau eighty miles long and stretching across the corners of three states. Lookout Mountain, Tennessee, and Lookout Mountain. Georgia, twin cities, occupy its northeast end and several villages dot the rest of its landscape. Several streams and one river originate atop the plateau and flow to the valley below. In the Georgia portion, a stream at Cloudland Canyon State Park flows over two falls visible from a hiking trail that descends limestone steps from the top. 

Further south, in Alabama, the Little River descends DeSoto Falls at DeSoto State Park, named for the explorer whose party passed nearby when Spain was the colonial power in the southern parts of what is now the United States. The Little River continues down the plateau to Little River Falls, where it enters the Little River Canyon, a gorge with high limestone cliffs on either side. It is a National Preserve. The name Little River is locally confusing. Another river with the same name flows through part of the Great Smoky Mountains, two hours to the Northeast. 

I have visited and photographed these grander falls in autumn and winter when the flow is small and in spring when they become raging cataracts. By comparison, Glen Falls is a mere trickle, a gentle stream such as are found throughout the length of Lookout Mountain to the south, the Cumberland Plateau to the west, and the Appalachian Mountains to the east, all within a day's drive. Each of those regions has a few thundering waterfalls and many smaller ones, the likes of Glen Falls. 

When I wrote the poem, right here at Glen Falls, the leaves were just emerging from buds, and the birds were still winter residents, awaiting the arrival of warblers, a living river flowing through our forests in spring and fall. Spring wildflowers continued to instill hope in the heart. 

The poem, "Glen Falls Trail," began with a list of words, a writing prompt received at the open mic at a local bookstore. It also started with the stream's murmur over the falls and graffiti, "George Loves Lisa," painted on a rock at the bluff above the falls. The poem ends with the lines:

"I never knew this George or Lisa
The rock bears their names in silence, 
names the stream forgot years ago." 

The poem ended there, but not the story. I submitted the poem to a writing contest sponsored by the Tennessee Writers Alliance and later learned I had won second place. I was invited to read the poem at an awards ceremony at the Southern Festival of Books that October, to take place 100 miles away in Nashville, the state capital, on Legislative Plaza. 

As summer progressed, I rehearsed the poem a few times and noticed I had less energy than before. Though only fifty-four years old, I thought my reduced energy resulted from aging. Meanwhile, I took a job that proved to be more physically demanding, and I noticed myself sleeping more hours each night. I thought it was just my body adjusting to the demands of the job, but in September, my doctor performed a stress test and sent me to a cardiologist. The specialist performed an angiogram and declared that I would undergo Cardiac Bypass Surgery the following day.

I objected. It was a Thursday, and my awards ceremony was on a Saturday, just sixteen days away. More than that, I had been relatively healthy all my life, and I could not adjust to the idea that I was not well. From the turning point of my successful poem, I was at another of despair, thinking I might die during surgery or become invalid. 

Friday night and early Saturday, I was in and out of consciousness like a failing fluorescent light on a marquee, the type which flickers to life, burns brightly for a while, and fades with an audible buzzing sound. I was in a private room by Saturday night, where I would remain for six more days. The mental adjustment after such a surgery is a whole other story.

After discharge from the hospital, I rested for three days at a friend's house before returning to my apartment, where I kept everything within reach, not reaching over my head, and ate a healthier diet, but one which I consumed voraciously. My neighbor Julie spoke to me and agreed to drive me to Nashville for the awards ceremony, a promise she immediately regretted. She was sure I would die on the trip, but when Saturday arrived, we departed for Nashville with her friend Matt who drove. I slept most of the way, full of pain medicine and the stress of a healing body. 

At Legislative Plaza, the sun was bright and the crowd loud. It was my first visit to a crowded urban area since the surgery, and I was in my own world. The canopy under which the ceremony would take place was surprisingly easy to find. However, the ceremony was one of several simultaneous programs on the plaza and in surrounding buildings. I picked up a copy of the program for the festival and noticed that a friend had presented the previous day. Too bad I missed it.

I greeted the mistress of ceremonies, my poem in one hand and a heart-shaped pillow in the other. I explained the pillow's importance in helping me clear my lungs, speaking to her bemused countenance. It was emblazoned with a lovely color schematic of a human heart, not of the valentine's day ilk.

Fortunately, the emcee explained my journey to arrive at the ceremony before I stepped to the microphone. Though I did not bob and weave like an owlet, I was somewhat unsteady on my feet as I read what was, in fact, an early draft of the poem and not a copy of the submitted manuscript. According to my neighbor, I accelerated and slowed the pace of my reading randomly. I finished to the reluctant applause of an audience of strangers. 

We returned to Chattanooga, and my neighbor was amazed I did not die on the trip. I spent more and more time on the porch, listening to the sweet sounds of chickadees and titmice. I wrote very little, but my inspiration from Glen Falls and survival of the trip to Nashville convinced me to continue as a poet. 
I have since visited Glen Falls numerous times and written two more poems there. I have discovered that I write my best while outdoors and have published several poems. The poem "Glen Falls Trail" was later included in the Southern Poetry Anthology: Volume VI, Tennessee, an annual publication of the Texas Review Press. Each year, they publish a volume of poetry from one state, so most poets have but one chance to be included. Most of the poets are far better known than me; most have three poems in the volume compared to my one. I am honored to be included. 
​The events described took place in 2007. Photographs are from November 27, 2018, Canon DSLR camera with 18 to 55 mm lens. 
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