RURAL SUNDAY
I see Heathcliff
slink out of the forest
in the morning mist.
He is wearing
a skinny dark suit
like the grackles
in the cornfield.
Cathy has gone
to church
with our neighbors
in Central Illinois
but not me.
I will rise and bank,
rise and bank
in the mist
with the iridescent
grackles
in the cornfield.
I will rise and bank
rise and bank
with Heathcliff
in an iridescent
feathered black suit
and Cathy will
return from church
redeemed and never
die.
None of us will die
on this misty
Sunday morning
in the cornfield.
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JAN BALL’s poems have appeared widely in journals in the UK, Canada, India, Czech Republic and the U.S., including in Calyx, Connecticut Review, Main
Street Rag, Nimrod and Phoebe. Her two chapbooks, Accompanying Spouse (2011) and Chapter of Faults (2014), as well as her first full-length poetry collection, I Wanted to Dance with My Father (2017), are available from Finishing Line Press.
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Read more by Jan Ball:
Three poems in Indiana Voice Journal
Three poems in Voice of Eve