Clara Wellington Places an Ad in the Western Papers

 

Sturdy 24-year-old gal from New Hampshire

                                                            Wind wailed on

                                                            autumn morning,

                                                            leaves

farm with two calico dresses, a fry pan, coffee pot,

                                                            dropped frenzies

                                                            of age around her.

can diaper and burp children, bake prize-winning pies,

                                                            She saw men hot

                                                            with gold fever dirty

                                                            thumbs

feed a family before sun-up, scour pots, tend

                                                            guiding horses

                                                            to anywhere, she wanted to

garden, sew trousers, work-shirts, children’s clothing, knit, mend

                                                            cut off her oily

                                                            dishwater hair, wear

socks and underclothes, who is clean though not comely, from a good

                                                            wide-brimmed hat

                                                            mine for her

stock of people, seeks to open romantic correspondence with a man in

                                                            destiny, a shift

                                                            in the hip  socket

West with prospect of proposal and marriage.

 

 

 

Shana Youngdahl’s poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Blue Earth Review, Margie, Hazmat and Gypsy. She has recently been awarded residencies from Norcroft and Devil’s Tower National Monument.