Thursday, July 22, 2010

loyalty



A Deposition
by Anne Porter Living Things: Collected Poems)

from Garrrison Keillor's WRITERS ALMANAC

which the raccoon news receives daily by Email



The nursemaid Agnes Cassidy

A woman not much bigger

Than a child

The eldest of thirteen

Came straight from Donegal

One of her eyes

Was pulled askew

Mauled by the forceps

Of a country doctor
Who had been drinking

The night that she was born

But her small flat

Unlucky face

Bore marks

Of Celtic beauty

And she was strong
Her faith was silent

Sure

And passionate

She'd gladly walk

Ten miles
In any weather

For a taste of God

And when her mother died

In Ireland

And a fierce sense of duty

Was dragging her
Back to the farm in Donegal

To help her father

She wept at leaving

The little fiery boy

Whose nurse she'd been

Whom she had named

The Fighting Irishman

And whom she loved she said

As much as she loved anyone.