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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
FORECLOSURE, by STERLING ALLEN BROWN Poet Analysis Poet's Biography
First Line: Father missouri takes his own
Last Line: And the old river rolls on, slowly to the gulf.
Subject(s): Missouri River; Rivers
First Line: Father missouri takes his own
Last Line: And the old river rolls on, slowly to the gulf.
Subject(s): Missouri River; Rivers
Father Missouri takes his own.
These are the fields he loaned them,
Out of hearts' fullness; gratuitously;
Here are the banks he built up for his children --
Here are the fields; rich, fertile silt.
Father Missouri, in his dotage
Whimsical and drunkenly turbulent,
Cuts away the banks; steals away the loam;
Washes the ground from under wire fences,
Leaves fenceposts grotesquely dangling in the air;
And with doddering steps approaches the shanties.
Father Missouri; far too old to be so evil.
Uncle Dan, seeing his garden lopped away,
Seeing his manured earth topple slowly in the stream,
Seeing his cows knee-deep in yellow water,
His pig-sties flooded, his flower beds drowned,
Seeing his white leghorns swept down the stream --
Curses Father Missouri, impotently shakes
His fist at the forecloser, the treacherous skinflint;
Who takes what was loaned so very long ago,
And leaves puddles in his parlor, and useless lakes
In his fine pasture land.
Sees years of work turned to nothing --
Curses, and shouts in his hoarse old voice,
"Ain't got no right to act dat way at all"
And the old river rolls on, slowly to the gulf.
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TWO-RIVER LEDGER by KHALED MATTAWA
HE FINDS THE MANSION by JAMES MCMICHAEL
THE RIVERS by CLARIBEL ALEGRIA
VERMILION FLYCATCHER, SAN PEDRO RIVER, ARIZONA by MARGARET ATWOOD
THE PORCH OVER THE RIVER by WENDELL BERRY
THE RIVER BRIDGED AND FORGOT by WENDELL BERRY
AFTER WINTER by STERLING ALLEN BROWN