We come from slow flat places in Ohio,
places bumbling beside a river
or rising at a crossroads
after miles of corn.
The skies are flat.
Our arguments are quiet.
Tight lips, silence,
an angry shoulder at the kitchen sink,
stillness of wheat,
wind in a cornfield;
the stubborn small town
grassblade-in-the-teeth quiet
of Ada, Cary, Sandusky, Findlay;
the rivers: Ottawa, Maumee, Blanchard, Tiffin
shouldering through hot baked clay
to sullen Erie.

Men remember nitro in the wagons,
nestled like eggs
in rustling straw;
they hunched over reins,
patient, careful, eyes-out for rocks
ruts, roadholes.
Knowing anger
a risky luxury,
they blasted roadways,
stumps of trees;
drained the swampland
down to shallow Erie.
In front of post offices, on benches,
they quarrel silently
with their
recalcitrant land.

My mother clenched clothespins
with her teeth,
hanging out the wash; moved
to the next task
stiff-shouldered;
out of cracked grey clay,
insisted on
the reluctant beans, peas, berries:
mouthing around the wooden pins
her arguments with God.

The Maumee moves
through a stubborn land;
argues with limestone, treestumps, bridges;
in a quarrel with gravity
slips with muddy refusal
into cloudy Erie.
The lights go on in small towns
along Ohio's rivers:
the gas station lights
the stop light
the tavern's red wink;
and out among the cornfields
the old two-window, wide-front-porch
brick farmhouses
fist their lights
across the stubborn fields.

When we shout
something really big is required:
God, a tornado,
the Depression. Our angers
tend to ruminate on porches
or lie wakeful
in the square of moonlight
on the blanket;
quiet anyway,
like the kicked dog
still running in his sleep
on the shadowed sill.  

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about the poem:
previously published in Savoy Magazine  

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Ohio poet Sharon Kourous has lived all her life near Toledo, and recently retired from teaching high school English. Her work has appeared in print and online, and has won various awards including several Pushcart nominations. She recently served as assistant poetry editor for the 25th issue of the online journal Melic.
E-mail: sharon1034 at yahoo dot com  

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