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Garden of Eden: The Watauga Longhunters and the Battle of Kings Mountain
By R. N. Letterman
What wilderness
Into the darkness we go
Outwitting game,
Returning with pelts of legend
Here life roars and provides
We hold sacred what is not ours,
Yet always steady onward
God walks through this country
There are no cowards here
We’ve learned to carve
Cornerstones from uncertainty
When we call, help does not arrive
That is fine, these tracks would
Eat them alive. The mountain fog
Blinds them. Our sight widens with every
Breath thick with independence
Decrees do not penetrate this frontier
There is no one to trust. No one to guard my life
But my neighbor
The wilderness speaks back
The calls cannot go unheeded
I have fed this plot ache and foundations
Now our children harvest its wisdom
You underestimate my loyalty
Every soul this side of the mountain!
Listen!
What they see is
Defiance, action, resilience
We recognize each other through
Courage, caution, respect
They seek our vision, gather your long rifles,
The kingsmen are coming
What else do you want?
I left my home for this
Fertile soil you left to the shadows
I defended your dreams with
My life. It only took one hour..
Mountains are no throne for
Kings. Regardless of your maps
We named our homesteads
Regardless of your wars
We returned citizens
Listen
As God’s it was for us to catalogue Eden
Seeds of democracy are planted
Like figs. Was not the fruit law and order?
Now freedom is your vice
Demigods feeding from cursed roots
How far we’ve come from Genesis
It has always been the truth,
What lies behind lies ahead
Turn back now, lest we all be cast out.
Meet the Poet – R. N. Letterman
R.N. Letterman began writing as a child and after many years began publicly sharing his work at Wanderlinger’s Poetry Circle in the Fall of 2021. Born in California, raised in the Carolina’s, and previously from the evergreen Pacific Northwest. So far, Chattanooga, TN has been R.N. Letterman’s greatest inspiration.
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