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Amish Quilt and Bake Sale
by
Constance Vogel Adamkiewicz


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With a white dove hand
she plucks my dollar bill for her shoo-fly pie.
Her chicory blue eyes glance at my beads,
then shy away.
Nearby on a bench a black bonnet perches,
a crow watching.
 
Her cornstalk hair is knotted back
behind a plain vanilla cap,
her homespun dress wired tight
in sweet submission.
Does she always turn her other cheek?
Or, sometimes when she kneads bread dough,
punches it down, slaps it,
does she see a face --
the man who raced her buggy,
the girl who giggled at her tight-laced shoes?
 
On a rack her strict black bordered quilt ignites
purple, pink and red.
On winter nights as she lies
beside her long-jawed German,
a net of snow descends around the house.
Is she warmed by dreams of stitching up
petals that rain from apple trees?
Does she hear the plum juice dropping thick
from jelly bags to wide-mouthed jars?
Pink of petals, purple of plums --
why red that seems about to leap
like flames over fire lanes of black?
 
© by Constance Vogel Adamkiewicz
Used with the author's permission.

 

Constance Vogel Adamkiewicz is the author of one poetry collection, Caged Birds, and two chapbooks, The Mulberry and When the Sun Burns Out. More than 150 of her poems have appeared in literary journals and online, and one was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. After teaching English and creative writing for many years, Constance now enjoys gardening, travel, reading, and taking various courses in which she’s interested. She and her husband recently adopted a British domestic shorthair cat named Brenda, who enjoys birdwatching from her throne on top of the sofa.


Post New Comment:
Larry Schug:
There are a lot of very good words in this poem--crow as black bonnet,a net of snow descending, stitching up petals--WOW! I'm always a bit cautious about hinting at what is in another's mind, however or applying my standards to others.
Posted 10/14/2012 08:09 PM
Katrinka:
So evocative of the questions in our minds about these women who live differently. Lyrical treatment of a difficult subject.
Posted 10/14/2012 03:58 PM


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