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PONDYCHERRY

and wondering where I got it, arrived at
a satiny red-brown wood that came
naturally hollowed from the mill, something
a craftsman might use in his furniture,

an elderly wood-turner and caner of chairs
who worked out of a storefront, its floor
lovely to the nostrils and eyes
with sawdust and woodcurl.

He'd be a local repository who still used
"honeywicket" for flicker, "timberdoodle"
for woodcock. He'd look at
a yard-sale chair, its seat busted
through like a basketball hoop, and say,

"That wood's pondycherry, used to be
a stand of it the far side of Higgins Pond.
A pleasure to work with, but the fruit
would pucker you permanent."

Pondicherry, the dictionary gives me,
a former province of French India.
But why should I choose between denotation
and the mind at play, or reject another
hint, from the depths under a word,
that I've lived other places, other lives?