To celebrate National Poetry Month, The Poetry Box is sharing a Poem-of-the-Day, selected from various anthologies and individual poet collections that we have published over the years.
Please enjoy today’s selection: “Innkeepers Wife Irate Over Loss” by Carolyn Martin, which appears in The Way a Woman Knows:
Innkeepers Wife Irate Over Loss
I could spit! I shouted in his face.
Turning paying guests away!
He brushed that couple off without
so much as, Maybe we could find … .
When will he learn? The Census earns
five years of room and board,
but lugging wood and curing hay,
learning isn’t on his mind.
Of course I’d carve a plan. I’d hearth
an extra rug to keep her bundle warm.
He and that soft-eyed man would share
a bed. And when it came her time,
we’d march those smelly shepherds far
beyond the barn and hush those wings
and aggravating songs. They drive
a dreamer from his restless sleep.
And, the publicity we’d glean!
A destination site, at least.
Not every day do morning stars
and cameled Kings ruckus through
our town. We’d be well-mapped,
well-known for hospitality,
not the butt of half-lame jokes.
We lost the chance. I’m furious!
Know what’s worse? That dotty neighbor
with the rotting manger molding hay
lets strangers muck across his barn,
dropping coins to say they’ve been.
Now he roams his days across the hills,
singing sounds like tidings, peace,
and human hearts. Who talks like that?
I’d like to know. Who talks like that?
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