Friday, August 28, 2020

RE-READING ANNIE DILLARD ~







Farmer's Daughter



There's always unseasonable weather.

Remember the flood that killed father:

when the water went down, the chickens

lay muddy and drowned. Oh we watch

the weather here on earth; we don't forget

the winter days when girls wear cotton dresses,

the Aprils when the bushes sag with snow.

      We were cutting the apple trees back

      when he said, "Look, it's snowing;"

      but I'd seen a winter of snow

      and knew that more were coming.

Still, what do we know of a season?

Only father could say

when the rain would stop at the mountain

or ruin the hay. I'd try to watch

the hawks or lick a finger,

and the crops were still a failure;

there was frost all over the valley,

south as far as Twin Falls.

      He kissed me when shadows were long

      on the path to the orchard; he promised

      to meet me again when the apples were in;

now when the wind parts the curtains,

now in the city when the cat won't come,

I sleep with only one eye shut,

keeping a weather eye out.






______________________

ANNIE DILLARD
Tickets for a Prayer Wheel
University of Missouri Press
1974





Someone ordered this book from us ~
so since I'm the packer of books, I read it
before I packed it. It's how you say goodbye.