DECISIONS

Mary Townsend Ratcliffe, Wheeling, VA, April 1856


The hardest decision is what to take
and what to leave behind. There is
not enough room on the riverboat
for all our possessions, even if we could
pay to have them shipped to Kansas.
So many items that have no value
other than the memories they spark,
I must sell or leave for others.
I will pack necessities—pots, pans,
bedding, clothing, books (yes, necessary)—
and a few niceties, but most I will leave.

And, Uncle Thomas’ collections—
we cannot take them with us.
We do not need his herbarium
or his geological specimen cabinet,
though, what a curiosity they would be…
Perhaps the medical society
will have an interest, or one
of the natural scientists in town.

I know we’ve made the right decision.
I know we should go, lest Kansas be lost
to slavery and ignorance;
that we must go to help assure free soil.
But, I struggle with the thought
that we might never see
family and friends again;
that I might never again
walk these green mountains.
And, what of natural science? Medicine?
What opportunities will I have
to pursue these, to continue my studies
when there will be so much work with the farm?

SPRING, 1863

John Ratcliffe, Marshall County, Kansas


I see the signs of spring around me.
Birds have returned
or are passing overhead, flying north.
Flowers are in bloom,
and buds have appeared on the fruit trees.
But I cannot shake this winter.
Though the days grow longer,
I am in darkness.
Though I am home,
the storm of war surrounds me.

I cannot find the beauty
in the blossoms and the buds.
In the singing of the birds,
I hear only the cries
of the wounded and the dying.
The boys clattering through the house
sound like brigades rushing to battle.
Every clang of a pot or pan makes me jump.

Only in the depths of night,
when all is still do I find peace.
There are days I wish I’d died on that battlefield.
Then there would have been only one death,
instead of the pain from my wounds
and the daily deaths I endure.

ACROSS THE RIVER, DARKENING

Across the river
darkening storm clouds appear,
steely bulks on this languid afternoon.
We lie somnolent,
slumbering through the sweated heat,
hoping for a savior breeze come soon
with wind-cooled waves of air
breathing life into lifeless bodies,
ushering one magnificent moment
of rapture and resurrection.

THE OHIO TOWN COMPANY

There on the prairie, on the edge of settlement,
the great sea of grass flowing to the west,
cities, towns, and farms to the east,
these Ohio men laid out their town,
measured out their farms,
knowing it would be some time
before government surveyors arrived,
but only a short time before claims jumpers,
Missourians, and Border Ruffians.

They came with plows and ideals,
to sow and reap new lives from the Kansas soil.

Raised on abolition, they had seen
runaways pass through their villages,
had seen the fear and hope in the eyes
of men, women, and children;
heard it in the whispered voices
in barns and cellars, under cover in wagons
as they waited for the slave hunters to pass.
Quakers to a man, they sat in Meeting
listening to those who counseled patience
and trust in God that laws would change.
They had helped hide runaways;
bought only goods made with free labor.
But this was not enough.
When Kansas opened, they went west
to send a message to the nation.
Kansas would be free,
by the ballot, they hoped;
by force if necessary.

It was their season,
and they waited for conflict to sprout.

OF COBBLER AND UNIONS

She insisted on dinner first—
fried chicken, corn bread, butter beans,
and glasses of cold sweet tea—
and then they could talk about
bringing the union into the pickling plant.
Dinner finished, she served dessert,
and then she and the union organizer,
sat at the kitchen table and made plans.
They wrote out demands;
discussed strategies between bites
of her peach cobbler.

In her grandmother’s time
she would have had a cook
to prepare dinner and dessert.
In her great-grandmother’s time,
she would have been waited upon
and would not have sat in the kitchen
when visitors came calling.
But, those times were gone.
In her mind she kept a list
of all that had been lost,
determined she would lose no more.
She was a strong woman,
willing to take on the plant’s bosses,
toughened by years of dealing
with a hard-drinking husband
worn thin by reaching
for any work that paid.

The union rep knew he should not talk
of capital and labor, or the role
of the proletariat in history,
not with her patrician past.
If he wanted to unionize the plant
he would have to listen to her.
And, he knew that he had better
eat a second helping of her cobbler.

THE ORACLE IN HER GARDEN

The Oracle sits in her garden.
Only the breeze comes,
rustling through the branches
of the apple tree of knowledge
and the cherry tree of life,
the blossoms of both
falling gently to the ground.

CHAIR ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD

On the side of the road,
next to the concrete barrier
separating the northbound lanes
from the southbound,
a lawn chair.

How does a single chair
come to be placed upright
on the shoulder of the highway?
Why only one chair?
Why not two, and a table as well?
What if I want to watch
the passing traffic with a friend,
where will she sit?
Where will we set
our drinks and hors d’oeuvres?