Sunday, May 2, 2010

sadie hawkins day (for kate)

These rows of houses, arrow-straight,
though old, were not the first
in Deerfield, town whose massacre
we count among the worst.
Little remains of Roanoke;
Williamsburg sold to Disney;
Plimoth Plantation has no ghosts;
Boston grew to a city.
But we can mourn here, Deerfield's name
denotes no "vanished" place:
rebuilt - the clapboard victory,
buried - the winning race.
Some whites turned Indian, more ran real red:
Twenty-five English children, this time, dead.

1 comment:

  1. I adore this. Especially: "rebuilt - the clapboard victory, / buried - the winning race." It's perfect. Save the date: Next February 29 we should raid Deerfield together.

    ReplyDelete