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Elegy for a Scarecrow

Published onDec 09, 2024
Elegy for a Scarecrow
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Elegy for a Scarecrow

October's henchman has bled again.
Evenly the straw is strewn
without retribution or shame. 

An amplitude of human contact 
stitched into the farmer's flannel shirt, 
that still smells of apple cores, smoke and hay. 

This hired hand without pay, here to usher 
in bounty and harvest, where yearning is heard
intermittent as an owl in the barn. 

At first frost, face down, he knew his place
and his art, presiding over compost and rue - 
the last of the soup stirred in 

a lonely widow's kitchen. Last spring
the ghosts of her grown children 
sprinkled the seeds in all the wrong places - 

but a garden grew just the same. 
A snow of willows. The landscape shivers.
He never said a word, but she looked for 

his company, understanding his serious business
with the weather - befriending pumpkins 
in midnight sun. The crows are inconsolable, 

their wings leave stains across the moon. 

Vol. 38, no. 2, 2010

Cynthia Atkins (she/her), originally from Chicago, IL is the author of Psyche’s Weathers, In the Event of Full Disclosure, and Still-Life With God (Saint Julian Press 2020), and Duets, a collaborative chapbook from Harbor Editions.  Her work has appeared in many journals, including Alaska Quarterly ReviewBOMBCider Press ReviewDiode, Cimarron ReviewGargoyle, Indianapolis ReviewLily Poetry Review, Los Angeles ReviewRust + MothNorth American Review, Permafrost, PlumeTinderbox, and Verse Daily.  She earned her MFA from Columbia University and teaches at Blue Ridge Community College. Atkins has earned fellowships and prizes from Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, SWWIM Residency, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, The Writer’s Voice, and Writers@Work. Atkins lives on the Maury River of Rockbridge County, VA.  More work and info at: www.cynthiaatkins.com 
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