Logan County

(05/01/97 revision)

She grew up in Logan county

But every year they went to Nebraska

And once, she had been to Denver

A cold wind blew in off the prairie

Through the open window

Blew the lacy curtains

Into her face

As she washed up the dishes

She married Floyd when she was 18

Even though she didn’t have to

Like her friend Elaine

Staring at the duct-tape

Like some demented cross

Covering the window, broken

When Floyd put his hand through

(He was mad and drunk)

He wore the bandage for two weeks

She pours herself another drink

Then fills the bottle up with water

The ice sounds light

And playful in the glass

She knew that Floyd was sleeping with

The waitress at the DEWDROP INN

She wished secretly that she could find

Some horrible torture

Or maybe throw acid in her face

Floyd kept Muriatic acid in the barn

Her name is Dorothy

And a small farm could nestle

In her fantastic cleavage

She wondered what it felt like

To be…big…like that

As she put the Miracle Whip

Back in the refrigerator

She had never seen a play

But she thought her life

Would make a good TV show

She acted in the Melodrama

Senior year in High School

Her Grandma said she should have been an actress

The peas looked too green

But fresh were out of season

Little Joey mashed his frozen peas under his plate

Too green to be…real

He eats like an animal

He eats like his father

She had an affair once

With the telephone man

They had been together

Six times in two weeks

Then she broke it off because

She felt guilty

She had another lover too

He enfolded her like nightfall

He would marry her someday

They’d never see Eastern Colorado again

She had read about him in a

Romance novel

The novel had a beautiful cover

A woman in a white dress

That was falling off of her shoulders

Being held by a dreamily beautiful lover

She used to read Danielle Steel

But not anymore

There was just too much sex in it

Damn! She had dropped a dish

It shattered with a crash

She stooped to pick it up

The fragments were wet and slick

With soap

She bent down

Her floral print housedress spread

Thin

Across her bottom