• Listing ID: 36317
• Poetry Author's Name: Lauren Mills
• Name of Educational Institution: Dartmouth College
• Poem: I have been made aware of the fact that you died
  in 1846, but am hoping this will reach you regardless.
  I have heard you are the foremost expert on solar activity,
  weather patterns, and astronomical cycles, as well as
  the best times to fish and how to build a community.
  I have heard you lived and worked in New Hampshire,
  which is where I have recently come to live and sometimes
  but rarely work. Did you know that ticks no longer freeze here,
  in the winter? The annual mean temperature has increased
  by about 2.6°F since your days. I check my ankles in both
  August and January, and am disappointed by how little
  it snows. I read about you on the Almanac’s website
  (a website is like a book that’s in the air) and wanted to reach out.
  They have a biography on you, they praise your name, they say
  there were two total solar eclipses in the US in your lifetime.
  They publish a new cake recipe on your birthday every year.
  They sell things now, too, like a Fruits Vegetables & Herbs
  1000pc Puzzle for $19.95 and a Jeffersonian Brass Kinetic
  Wind Vane for $119.99. Don’t worry, that’s inflation, mostly.
  I know you just wanted to help the travelers, sailors, bookkeepers,
  beekeepers, and prognosticators. I don’t know if those people
  exist anymore. Robert Bailey Thomas, I fear summer now rots
  into last ditch efforts and expletives over the softness of peaches,
  so I’ll wrap up with some questions I hope you can answer.
  Why can I only see some stars out of the corner of my eye?
  Was your America much greener? Why, even when I am so quiet,
  and so good, can I not catch a fish? Why did you die, when
  you knew every psalm by heart and every benefit of witch hazel?
  Do you ever feel like July has forgotten your name?
  Do you know what I mean? Hey, Robert Bailey Thomas,
  please say you know what I mean.
• Poet's Bio: Lauren Mills is a student at Dartmouth College. She writes poems and plays.

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