A woman came down the hill from her farm
with her two little children
to have her neighbor cut

She called the white ducks with a soft
Clucking of her tongue and they came to
Her busy hands for the hard corn she shelled.

When he came home from the mines,
he went through the cellar; stripped
off his blackened work-clothes

He said he was going to make this the worst beating
I had ever had, while pulling the split strop out
From its hiding place on the top shelf of the

Let me promise bravely to uphold you,
though we falter at the threshold when we cross.

To write about age you need to take something and 
break it.
(This is an art that has always loved young women.
And silent ones.)

They made money—
                                maybe not the way
you think it should be done

My gift to you will be an abyss, she said, 
but it will be so subtle you’ll perceive it
only after many years have passed