.................................
Once there
.................................

was a field, red with flowers & green
with whispering snakes His wife offered her heel
she ran from one side to another free
from courtyard & weaving

companions, women who could not refrain
from noting the inappropriate
that crept into her voice, mistakes she made
on the lyre--& her husband, famed

poet!
Once there was a field, her (with his permission)

Once there was a field & her death lay in it

 
.................................
In Berks County, Pennsylvania
.................................

Somewhere in the vicinity of Virginville
she had a closet filled with crepe & polyester & cork-soled shoes
& a leather jacket lined in fleece which I saw her wear just once
on an October hay-ride
during which Jillian Kramer's big brother tried to coax her down
among us from her seat above us where she was ostensibly
watching over us to make sure that we didn't progress
from hand-holding to hand-nesting in hay-hidden
  places

When he whispered his suggestions in her burst of dyed sun straw hair she hissed
      seductively
      Someplace else
I never knew exactly where she lived in all that corn & apple & Amish country
I only knew that she lived, a miss, abandoned once at an altar

.................................
Mary Keller
.................................

 
Copyright © Mary Keller
July 1998

...several poems in this room by John Surowiecki...
hopi silver
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