Anti-Pastorals
- Anti-Pastorals
love, country, sexuality, texts, Russia, flowers, death
… the garden was spoiled by war news …
—Holly Pike
1. CHLORIS HAS HER SAY
"If it's true, Chloris, that you love me,and I've heard you do love me well—"was a fresh way for you to begin.After that you lost the thread a bit,scorning ambrosia and the prospectof trading places with kings if my lovewere sure. (No kings were offering.)
But yes, it was true. I did love you,as I told the wind, the brook,the sheep eating the four-o'clocks,then later the court, the warden,the midwife, the coroner,and the ghost of a black yew. [End Page 131]
2. ORLANDO ON THE DOWN LOW
(orlando:) sup
(diggory:) …
lime-tree bower, midnight?
but tomorryyou pretend not to kno meat scarborough fairin my fuckn cambric shirt???
not out to fair phyllis yet yo
then go mount her mouthwith lips likepink muscatel
boy no why
and I'llgrow happy in that hell
don't do me like ths
of remembering tha' asswhereon I spiltmy full [End Page 132]
3. DONALD'S TROCHEES
Russian gardenscame in fashion,built of limestone,torches, troll farms,heartbreak grasses.Out with Jackie'sroses. In withinsurrection'sbloody blossoms.Sniffles' wife, who'drather snugglemoney, swattedoff his lousylittle fingers.(Where the scent ofStormy lingers.) [End Page 133]
4. FARM BURIAL
The child Piper Ramseyer and her daddyCross Ramseyer came back in boxesafter a tire blew out.
Barbary Ramseyer, mother and wife,walked away with one black eye,
out of which she watched the holesdug beside the house.
Chickens with red eyes and slate toesdragged the sickles of their tails.
Cainy Ball waited on a backhoewith a disrespectful ripin his teeshirt.
Reverend T. C. Shirley stoodamong the peonies, sayinggo to heaven.
That last gesture, casting rosesonto the lids—soft bumpson damp tympani.
As three of the aunts,Honey, Mossy, and Pearl,laid out a covered dish supper,
they all agreedthey never heard a rosemake a sound like that. [End Page 134]
5. END OF THE GARDEN
Refusing to revealwhere the kink is,crushing the clematis,catching on bricks,on everything, on itself,the garden hose,meandrous in shade,snags and coughsat the end of the garden,knots on nothingI can see. [End Page 135]
patrick donnelly is the author of five books of poetry, most recently Little-Known Operas (Four Way Books) and the forthcoming Willow Hammer (Four Way Books). With his spouse Stephen D. Miller, he translates classical Japanese poetry and drama. He is director of the Poetry Seminar at The Frost Place, Robert Frost's old homestead in Franconia, NH, now a center for poetry and the arts.
