<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto">Love this, thank you.<br><br><div dir="ltr">Cheryl E. Fields<div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Sent from my iPhone</div></div><div dir="ltr"><br><blockquote type="cite">On Nov 11, 2021, at 1:33 PM, Ann Chiappetta via Stylist <stylist@nfbnet.org> wrote:<br><br></blockquote></div><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 15 (filtered medium)"><style><!--
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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--><div class="WordSection1"><p class="MsoNormal">In the Meantime<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Max Garland<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://poets.org/poem/meantime?mc_cid=830cbe711a&mc_eid=db914003ad">https://poets.org/poem/meantime?mc_cid=830cbe711a&mc_eid=db914003ad</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">The river rose wildly every seventh spring<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">or so, and down the hatch went the town,<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">just a floating hat box or two, a cradle,<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">a cellar door like an ark to float us back<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">into the story of how we drown but never<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">for good, or long. How the ornate numbers <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">of the bank clock filled with flood, how <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">we scraped minute by minute the mud <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">from the hours and days until the gears<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">of time started to catch and count again.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Calamity is how the story goes, how<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">we built the books of the Bible. Not <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">the one for church, but the one the gods<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">of weather inscribed into our shoulder<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">blades and jawbones to grant them grit<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">enough to work the dumb flour of day<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">into bread and breath again. The world<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">has a habit of ending, every grandmother <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">and father knew well enough never to say,<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">so deeply was it stained into the brick <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">and mind. We live in the meantime<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">is how I remember the length of twilight <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">and late summer cicadas grinding the air<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">into what seemed like unholy racket to us, <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">but for them was the world’s only music.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Copyright © 2021 by Max Garland. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on November 11, 2021, by the Academy of American Poets.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center">Ann M. Chiappetta, M.S.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center">Making Meaningful ConnectionsThrough Media <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">914.393.6605 USA<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="mailto:Anniecms64@gmail.com">Anniecms64@gmail.com</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">All things Annie: <a href="http://www.annchiappetta.com">www.annchiappetta.com</a> <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p></div><span>_______________________________________________</span><br><span>Writers Division web site</span><br><span>http://writers.nfb.org/</span><br><span>Stylist mailing list</span><br><span>Stylist@nfbnet.org</span><br><span>http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/stylist_nfbnet.org</span><br><span>To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for Stylist:</span><br><span>http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/stylist_nfbnet.org/cefields55%40gmail.com</span><br></div></blockquote></body></html>