Cantilevered Bedtime Story

Wallpaper farm, the girl
with the ducks, the friendly
farmer's father-work,
the moony mother's queer
stare and the bee-hivey
haystacks, the pitchforks,
the curly cows by the pond.

Elsewhere, a window frames
green light. Elsewhere,
the dark-hall-doorway,
the long walk to the kitchen's
grown-up talking. The Singer
in the corner, electric
and shiny and under the bed,
and under the bed...

O happy wallpaper-girl,
the cow wants to give you
her milk. The father's pitchfork
is solid and serene, but what
can be done for the woman
in the fluttering apron
whose gaze is seaward, and
elsewhere, and gone?

Copyright © 2008 Deborah Bogen All rights reserved
from The Iowa Review
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission