Remembering Farm Women

As a child
I watched them
and I remember

a woman's defense
was anything in reach

Her weapons were few
and always begrudged

Why did men imagine
they deserved the velvet touch
the nightingale's voice

from a woman who plowed
when planting got behind

and prayed for rainwater
to wash her hair

Why did rough farmers
dream of girls
from the Ziegfeld Follies

when wives were vomiting
with another pregnancy

Notes

McDaniel, Wilma. (2001) Borrowed Coats. Hanging Loose Press, Brooklyn, New York.
Courtesy University of California, Merced Library. Copyright owned by the Regents of the University of California.