- 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. Scoring
Philip Larkin, 1922-1985
Poets, Larkin, some of us became
for no more reason than a face
...
- 4. Mississinewa County Road
When you drive at dusk, alone,
After the corn is harvested, the wind
Scatters bits of dry husk along the road.
A farmer has draped a groundhog's carcass
...
- 5. In The North Pasture
After we called the sheriff, they came
and hauled it away. But there was
one interviewer who stayed behind,
to ask if we'd seen any strange lights
...
