Santa Fe Poetry Broadside
Issue #12, November, 1999 : -- -1 -2 -3 -4 -5  6 -7 -8 -9 -10 -11 -12
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Miriam Sagan

     

The Lake

The Army Corps of Engineers
Flooded the town
Behind the dam--
Of course
Everyone was gone.
But still, the buildings
Of the town remain
Beneath blue water
Things forgotten
And left behind:
An old fashioned flat iron,
Yellow wallpaper
Showing ladies with parasols
Beneath a rose trellis,
A blurry black and white
Snapshot of a little dog.
This reservoir of blue
In inhospitable desert
Still calls, and we
Who know nothing of the drowned town
Come down to the water's edge
Pretending we want to fish
Or picnic
But really searching
For the submerged--
A teacup with roses,
A checkered oilcloth,
A blue willow plate--
The last one that wasn't
Broken
That we'd never expected
To forget to take.



Copyright © 1999 Miriam Sagan, Roshan Houshmand.

About the poet and the artist.

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Issue #12, November, 1999 :
Santa Fe Poetry Broadside.