Old Man Jack

in the oldness of the Appalachians
are narratives that have no plot
& are some cradlesong philosophy
in the new oral tradition
a man or hermit in this particular one
without Thoreau’s care packages
finds a bedtime story
connected to everything
but alone like some Chinese poet
in the first snow on the log cabin
while folksongs of hunters
echo down the valley
where they are chanted
just before sleep