Verse

Burke, Richard J.

Richard J. Burke Shagbark Hickory "Recall me things," said the nut by the couch, "and we'll ease the pain in your eye." Pain to him but a razorblade to me So I unwound my 16mm. memory: Little...

...On the bricks to our back we cut names with nails...
...Mary", "Beth" and "Hannah...
...I sang my boyhood on a wooden root-cellar door With Tim and Dan for Old Lady Carroll's spangle of bright pennies...
...He had his own green patch of Eden...
...he asked and I rose up and said: "Matinees are on Saturday...
...And left...
...Plus Saturday sins...
...I monkeyed another reel on my memorizer: Who would block the way of two black nuns blackly flowing...
...Not I. None of us would and scrambled down the old wooden walk and over the fence of Walsh's yard...
...Any more...
...The poplar stump had blood-rust to tell tales of Sunday dinners innumerable times...
...Recall me more," he said...
...No wonder he kept us out...
...Mary" was mine and she stayed longer in the brick...
...memory: Little Missus Grey, whose weight was in ounces in her ancient store at Herkimer and Arkansas, Cranking a coffee grinder for dear life As the wheel threatened to fling her to some kind of assumption...

Vol. 109 • February 1982 • No. 3


 
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