- 1. Spirea
Then she came, the sybil, out through the doors
of The Bell, the single drinking establishment
permitted in that narrow little country town-
she came out neither staggering nor collapsing
...
- 2. A Christmas Morning
One of my father's oldest stories:
how when he was a boy growing up
in that town, there were no ponies.
Buggies were gone almost as soon
...
- 3. The Clapping
There is a grace in the way people do things, even the simplest tasks-
the dance with which their fingers encircle the chicken's gaze, coaxing
the edges of its eyes into paleness, their calling upon it to rest now,
their speaking in a way that acknowledges something common to both of them-
...
- 4. Interview
Now this here rag is the one they used to call
the lost rag.
Sort of thing everybody knew and nobody ever bothered
...
- 5. Cutting Glass
It takes a long, smooth stroke practiced carefully
over many years and made with one steady motion.
You do not really cut glass, you score its length
...
