Katrina's Fair - Natalie Merchant
Greta's cedar hope chest is full of pamphlets
glass shelves of romantic vignettes
a journal laced with sedimentary prose
Norma gathers and collects
vintage photoplays, hair combs, valentines
Lillian allows the animals to scratch
leather crack and the mail collect in the box while coatings peel
Agnes veiled cathedral dweller smiles with benevolent pain
But it's Katrina's fair Tuesday morning
as she with caution unlatches the flat door
she alone cascades to the basement
careful not to spoil her calico printed pinafore
composite traits all mannerists
all others dissipate
Margauritte vigilant dwells upon frigid casements
Sarah's thoughts in the velocity accusations always pierce and pass
Clara abandons her passions for distastes
Miss Lenora P. Sinclair early for coffee in the pool
"I'm resituating all your words"
capital, space, colon, & paragraph
Sylvia keeps beasts in jars labeled kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species