you learned to hide them, the treasures you acquired with your humble labors,
safe from every threat but rumor; the corrosive gossip of neighbors
conspired to leave you to the mercies of a pair of perfect strangers
who knew better than you did that what you keep hid will kill you quicker
than a black bird that skims the cornfield in the dawn's first, earliest light
searching the stalks for a ragged figure in the rows to rest upon













