A poem by someone else
Jan. 1st, 2003 04:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
novapsycheI came across this in The New Young American Poets anthology, published in 2000. It's by Erin Belieu (I will need to get works of hers).
Legend of the Albino Farm
They do not sleep nights
but stand between
rows of glowing corn and
cabbages grown on acres past
the edge of the city.
Surrendered flags,
their nightgowns furl and
unfurl around their legs.
Only women could be this
white. Like mules,
they are sterile,
and it appears that
their mouths are always
open. Because they are thin
as weeds, the albinos
look hungry. If you drive out
to the farm, tree branches will
point the way. No map will show
where, no phone is listed.
It will seem that the moon, plump
above their shoulders, is constant,
orange as harvest all year
long. We say, when a mother
gives birth to an albino girl,
she feigns sleep after
labor while an Asian
man steals in, spirits
the pale baby away.
Legend of the Albino Farm
Omaha, Nebraska
They do not sleep nights
but stand between
rows of glowing corn and
cabbages grown on acres past
the edge of the city.
Surrendered flags,
their nightgowns furl and
unfurl around their legs.
Only women could be this
white. Like mules,
they are sterile,
and it appears that
their mouths are always
open. Because they are thin
as weeds, the albinos
look hungry. If you drive out
to the farm, tree branches will
point the way. No map will show
where, no phone is listed.
It will seem that the moon, plump
above their shoulders, is constant,
orange as harvest all year
long. We say, when a mother
gives birth to an albino girl,
she feigns sleep after
labor while an Asian
man steals in, spirits
the pale baby away.
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(no subject)
Date: 2003-01-01 03:08 am (UTC)Re:
Date: 2003-01-01 03:48 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-01-01 10:58 am (UTC)Re:
Date: 2003-01-02 01:42 am (UTC)Re:
Date: 2003-01-02 01:44 am (UTC)Ignore the repeat of the first line.
I look for irony or surprise to be even ever so slightly germane. This sounds generic and desperate, like she could have ended as well with "Then the space aliens shoved probes up their butts and whisked them off to their planet for experiments."