Farm Wife Sadly Alone, Troubled

Farm Wife Sadly Alone, Troubled


She will hang the laundry shortly
Just right amount of wind.
Kids have departed on the yellow bus.
A day in May when
All seems glowing and clean.
Vegetable garden
Just put in.
Albert is at a meeting of men
Left early.
Discussing strategies in pricing of crops.
Corn, beans, canola.
He took the larger two horse buggy.
She might go for a spin herself.
Later.
The old farmhouse creaks
As if to keep her company.
Helen down the Road
will be extremely busy
As well. No time for bothering her.
She sings to herself
Songs of Wednesdays’
Quilting group.
Her only society.
She calls the Dog for
A dish of water
Then opens the kitchen door
For his Exodus.
She has no Exodus.
Except in the precious
Scriptures.
Or sitting in the shaded
Swing seat. Lunchtime.
Sketching, and delighting
In a sandwich made
With last October’s preserves.
Daughter Karen had shared in the
Canning.
Now Karen has left the Life.
The way of Menno’s quiet people.
About a hundred forty years
Out of date. But righteous.




(Plight of many Amish women. Mennonites.)