being and becoming
erik e. humbert
She was an earthen-toned girl
to be spent and received each morning
in father's educated mass behind the barn,
leaning to the left against a weather-warped
vertical barn side board, long
to the white crown,
and it held her erect and attentive
even when she was not.
In her ruffled white best she never understood
the everything that was above her
but believed in cows and grass
chickens and handfuls of seed that clung to her
ever damp hands in mid-June.
She believed in God,
and the board that kept her straight
when she was not.
