on 29/1/02 4:48 pm, garydawg at [log in to unmask] wrote:
gary this is well described but I sometimes think poems like this are a bit
too personal... how do we universalise these experiences? I didn't think
this about your kitchen poem (I liked the "pour house" etc) but in this case
I feel I am somewhere rather uincomfortably private when I read it. I think
using Mama and Papa adds to this dificulty in the poem (for me).
Sally-ee
> Boot Hill II: Straw Skimmers
>
> (for MJM)
>
> It hung in the back of a crowded closet
> in the spare bedroom among debris
> she collected over a lifetime of saving:
> Misshapen sweaters, shoeboxes full
> of butter and cottage cheese containers,
> unsorted Poloraids, yellowed receipts
> and shoes. A straw skimmer the color
> of moldy hay, ripped and torn, a frayed
> dirty flesh ribbon, once pink or red held
> to the hat by a rusty safety pin.
>
> Who still remembers when she bought
> the hat with her first paycheck as a treat?
>
> How she sauntered down Main Street
> and caught a cowboy's eye?
>
> How gentle he was when he laid his Stetson
> atop her skimmer that first time by the river?
>
> Why he stomped the hat on the way
> to another binge and long disappearance?
>
> We remember him for his rough ways,
> but forget how tender his touch could be;
> we remember her soft, gentle voice,
> her hard and stubborn habits overlooked.
>
> There were other hats, bagged and boxed
> bonnets for church and garden club -
> flowered frills, wide brims and pill boxes -
> the skimmer consigned to servant duties:
> garden sunshade, basket for flowers,
> herbs and eggs, costume for pretend-teas,
> bed for Fluff's sick kitten.
>
> In her sickness and decline, the family
> descended on her house to cart away
> needlework, memories and dusty
> hatboxes. From a crowded closet
> in Papa's room, I rescued the skimmer
> from among shoeboxes and butter cups.
>
> Today, we buried Mama in the double
> plot bought with her egg money. I snuck
> the skimmer into her coffin, his last gift.
>
> January guest Nat at: http://gardawg.homestead.com/gardawg.html,
>
> Submissions: http://www.writershood.com/index.html
>
> Poets for Peace. ˇPoemas sí, balas no!
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