Saturday, September 08, 2007

Bucolic



Photo credit Rick Lee of Charleston WV
Used with permission


Stay with me a while, he asked
and a while turned into days
then years.
Now most mornings
he wakes with dread
knowing taxes will
probably take the homestead
But up from the kitchen
waft scents so soothing.
There’s coffee and bacon and freshly
made bread.
He dresses and notices
how the sun warms the
metal roof over his head –
over their heads –
They eat without speaking.
He rises – doesn’t clearing.
The sun is still rising as
he walks to the back door
and allows the screen to slam
satisfactorily behind him.
She stands in the daylight – her
hand on the screen
"Stay with me a while."
He doesn’t look back.
She didn’t speak the words.
The scent of the lilacs beside the
back door remind her that there
is work to be done.
….and the day begins.


2 comments:

Unknown said...

"He had entertained no notion, when doomed as he had thought to an unintellectual bucolic life, that such charms as he beheld in this idyllic creature would be found behind the scenes."
-Tess of the d'Urbervilles

Anonymous said...

Excellent... and to the core.