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Impractical Beauty


05.13.12 Posted in today's words by

William C Ross’ most recent poem to appear here was Another View (April 2012).

Impractical Beauty
By William C Ross

On rare days in spring and fall,
when he was working in the fields,
she stole an hour away
from the washboard and churn,
and planted bulbs and seeds
in the unpromising ground.

Nothing would come of the effort
that could be eaten or sold,
nothing that the children could wear.
They were merely rows of impractical beauty.

Daffodils and daisies, snowdrops and snowflowers.
Neighbors envied the colors,
and soon planted flowers of their own.

Seed after seed, season after season,
bulbs surviving against all reason.
Withering heat and winter’s snow
could not force death on the life below.

All the houses are gone now.
And the families that lived there.
Only a rough stone chimney stands,
a silent sentinel in the empty miles
where a strip mall lurks on the horizon, 
and morning glory vines climb the sunflower stalks
along the old rows of impractical beauty.



3 Responses to “Impractical Beauty”

  1. Jean says:

    William, as you show, sometimes, the most impractical beauty is the most practical and important of all. Thank you for this winsome poem.

  2. KC Bosch says:

    Very well written, thanks. This made me happy and sad. I can’t drive by one of these old homesteads and not think of all the hopes and dreams that lived and died there. I always wonder what became of the people. Your line “where a strip mall lurks on the horizon” tells us what will become of the land.

  3. bobbie troy says:

    Lovely.

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