Kathryn Stripling Byer
Kathryn Stripling Byer
(1944 / Camilla, Georgia)
Kathryn Stripling Byer Poems
1. | Coastal Plain | 9/7/2016 |
2. | Mountain Time [excerpt] | 9/7/2016 |
3. | I still can't get it right | 9/7/2016 |
4. | Vanity | 1/20/2003 |
5. | Diamonds | 1/20/2003 |
6. | Wildwood Flower | 1/20/2003 |
Best Poem of Kathryn Stripling Byer
Wildwood Flower
I hoe thawed ground
with a vengeance. Winter has left
my house empty of dried beans
and meat. I am hungry
and now that a few buds appear
on the sycamore, I watch the road
winding down this dark mountain
not even the mule can climb
without a struggle. Long daylight
and nobody comes while my husband
traps rabbits, chops firewood, or
walks away into the thicket. Abandoned
to hoot owls and copperheads,
I begin to fear sickness. I wait
for pneumonia and lockjaw. Each month
I brew squaw tea for pain.
In the stream where I scrub my own ...
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