a long time ago there were two sisters.
they lived in a cabin in the woods,
hauled water from the old well their pappy had dug
and planted a garden: every march
when the soil would heave and break
and one time
a baby shoe tilled up when they dug in the peas
a black nose pointing a patent snout to the sky,
it made them both jump then laugh.
they attempted to mend the place.
locust posts settling over time
as a thing will, one day the smokehouse door stuck for good
but neither could recall if anything inside was worth the effort.
they kept a blind horse in the field because
(when the girl from the college came with her machine and asked them to talk she said
what is his purpose Not too smart these youngins)
well, because he was old and they liked to see him there,
rubbing his head against the bob war
nuzzling the plum tree grey squirrel could leap to
clear from the front porch rail.
sometimes they saw big yellow teeth
and said things like How old you reckon Big is and
Them teeths got to ache in the cold.
one winter the snow did not come. the well pulley
did not freeze
stuck like it done the year
why nigh ever year! said the one,
the other: not ever year but most.
they agreed on things like this, shelling peas in a white enamel pan,
paddling the butter. soup beans for lunch,
never milk with fish.
never to talk of when the old horse might die and then what,
a bridge to cross A cross to bear! (the older one was the joker),
and never to talk of leaving.
