Maggie Elaine was born
to die when the cottonwood
weathered the ground with its seed.
Her blue eyes spoke of the sea,
but she never traveled beyond
the echo of the mountains of West Virginia.
Appalachia hummed through her veins
in a coal song of father and brothers
grinding out a living in pix axe swings.
Set in a trap of rainbow dreams
she was an easy catch for a traveling man
who fed her promises while robbing her innocence.
He left telling her he would return
just as soon as his pockets where lined with green
and winter surrendered to the call of a robin.
Nine months of believing a lie birthed a baby girl
on a sunny April day when the cottonwood wind
called Maggie Elaine to her grave in the shadows of a
blue mountain ridge.
©Susie Clevenger 2013
Comments
K
Is this what the song is about? I will have to go listen - He holds the violin so interestingly... I'm sure it is so he can sing as well.
AWESOME poem! Love a story/prose poem.
Love this line
and I was totally captured into the tale you told...such a great job your descriptions are so poetic and the entirety feels so balanced.
So cool, the video you chose is about 40 minutes away from where I live!! Wish I'd known about him in 2010! :)
Great work!
@Kay, Thank you. Life is hard in the Appalachian mountains for many who live there.
@Margaret, Thank you and thanks for the suggestion for the change!
@Vanessa, Thank you so Much!
@Kerry, It certainly has and remains to be a tough life there.