Lines at the Grange
Immediate is the shock
Of mask and white robe
Inside the old fairgrounds barn.
The shock fades, ambiguous:
Applique on the robe
A crusader red cross.
In the rodeo parade riders
Drape behind the saddle
A bright-colored cloth.
At a place in a journal
From 1995, I visited in summer
Daffodil Arabians at the arena.
On one page in the journal,
Across the street from
The poetry reading,
A helmeted knight
Holds the tour sign
For the Pythian Temple.
The mask and white robe
Continue to shock. Others
Turn to one another to say things.
Did white robes come from
The linen closet? Or from
Drama costuming?
Or from: maybe, we see, from:
The corn field. Near grange exhibits
The Scare Crows are various and many.
A bright jester has
The purple ribbon.
On the Merry-Go-Round
One horse has face mail.
White robes and masks
Were a horrific perversion
Of a knighthood fascination.
Armor at the 1905 Pythian Temple.
A corn field is not so far away
From a provincial seaport.
An early Crusader
Was Saint Francis of Assisi.
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