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.
This poem is from the chapbook Better Than Throwing Stones (Finishing Line Press), and is available now at https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/better-than-throwing-stones-by-jan-ball/
At eighty-one years old, Jan Ball has pretty much learned what is better in life than throwing stones at children. Her poems are filled with details of her various life experiences: her seven years in a convent, parenting, life in Australia, teaching and extensive travel but also leave some unanswered questions like: Was That Stephen King? or Research Poem: Does Anyone Really Want to Know About Slime? Jan also raises questions in the declarative: Why I Collect Netsukes, The Battle Scars That Soldiers Get or Catholic Church in London; the latter where Jan revisits her convent days while in London or The Pope in Dorothy’s Magic Shoes where Jan reacts to Easter experiences in Sydney where she lived for fifteen years with her husband and two children. Most of the poems make literary references where Jan puts two and two together. The answer is not always obvious, however.
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