B R I D E O F
Y O K E L
Once rigor is established
a certain beauty is possible
PAUL VALERY
Work Day
I like
her
sweater
it used
to be
Nothing
After ten days heat
Air still, a match
Flame unnerved
In the flue of the cook stove
We came out on the 11th day
To the breezes back cool,
Yellow leaves of a dying elm
Flying apart, grasses wet
To the high boots, and on that day
Quieter and the river clearer and
More part of itself, I crossed
Water at a narrow flow to find
Where this owl calls after days
Of silence, and while hiking up
The other side there was nothing
Limp
We knew Native must be still living
There even though her husband has been
Dead now over ten years and back then
They appeared inseparable. Sure enough
We came around the bend on bicycles and
Could see Native moving in the backyard near
The house pulling on something — black plastic
Skirted the place over winter and she was just
Getting to pull it off and put away. Stovepipes
Going up high on either gable end of the house,
Big barn now shut down across the road, all the
Other sheds and of course the sweep of pastures.
Here we are at heaven on earth as we glide
On bicycles closer and Native appears around
The corner limping bad and hair torn
Dragging the plastic and not about to stop to
Talk but when I ask how she has been she
Stammers with an awful hitch to her step that
Before the limp she was an awful lot better.
Diary
Working with her in the sun
We break for lunch in the sun
Share sandwiches in the sun
Finish and lay back in the sun
Soon we are kissing in the sun
_______________
Bob Arnold
Yokel
Longhouse
2011
