We take off our shoes and wrap ribbons around our feet,
fill our mouths with pumpkin seeds
and drink raw milk from the farm stand with bright purple fences.
Past the frog pond,
on a porch that overlooks Mount Monadnock,
old, barefoot women practice yoga in lemon yellow silk--
we pinch each others' arms
but do not say a word.
Main Street is not paved: Grey dirt and gravel crunch
under the stretched limbs of this too-old Chrysler,
and we talk in whispers
of the bronze sculptures welded to our periphery;
glass orbs affixed to metal limbs, catching the light and keeping it;
the loom wrapped in vibrant wool,
the color of my turquoise sneakers.
My mother smiles wide
as she reaches her thin hands
into barrels of seeds,
winks knowingly, and borrows three quarts of raspberries
she'll pay back tomorrow.
Canvases stretched in Caitlynn's basement scatter
the floor of my living room as she decides
what to send to New York;
the wide sweep of her arms is a crowded street in Chelsea,
her smile, the coffee shop
brimming with biscotti and pretty, gay men.
I hand her a jar filled with wishes.
She tastes it, sticky fingers red with seeds,
and clicks closed the wide-mouthed lid
without making a sound.
Author notes
Oh New England. ohoh
A contest entry
- Contest: Yankee Candle Titles by Mairi bheag.
900 points, ended November 9, 2008, 14 entries
Gold trophy winner
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
Should the opening and third stanzas be more succinct?
Comments
1 - 5 of 5
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Beautifully expressed with vivid imagery.
Congrats on the Gold.
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ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! why haven't i read this earlier
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gosh, it's so good.congrats!
meg
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I love this.
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Ooo, Real Live Yankee on the line here! Mt. Monadnock - Vermont or New Hampshire side? I never knew exactly where they made Yankee Candles. They just mysteriously appeared out of Yankee magazine ordering receipts, I think. Love the children pinching arms but not saying a word about the old ladies doing yoga on the porch. That just sums up life in the NE Kingdom for me, that and paying the berries back tomorrow. Lovely feel of Old New England here, indeed. Authentic.
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The original Yankee Candle is located in Deerfield, Massachusetts. For the most part, this is based on things that really happened. I do miss New England, sometimes, in small ways.
Vermont-side, I suppose.
And the "we", which I suppose is a little ambiguous, are not children, but my mother and myself. hah Although we do often act like children.....
In any case, thank you.
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