[New-Poetry] Garrison Keillor's Almanac on May Day!

[Anny Ballardini]

Poem: "Because You Left Me A Handful of Daffodils" by Max Garland from The Postal Confessions. © University of Massachusetts Press. Reprinted with permission. (buy now) 

Because You Left Me A Handful of Daffodils 

I suddenly thought of Brenda Hatfield, queen
of the 5th grade, Concord Elementary.
A very thin, shy girl, almost
as tall as Audrey Hepburn,
but blond.

She wore a dress based upon the principle 
of the daffodil: puffed sleeves,
inflated bodice, profusion
of frills along the shoulder blades
and hemline.

A dress based upon the principle of girl
as flower; everything unfolding, spilling
outward and downward: ribbon, stole, 
corsage, sash.

It was the only thing I was ever
Elected. A very short king.
I wore a bow tie, and felt
Like a third-grader.

Even the scent of daffodils you left
reminds me. It was a spring night.
And escorting her down the runway 
was a losing battle, trying to march
down among the full, thick folds
of crinoline, into the barrage of her 
father's flashbulbs, wading
the backwash of her mother's 
perfume: scared, smiling, 
tiny, down at the end
of that long, thin, Audrey Hepburn arm,
where I was king.


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Anny Ballardini
http://annyballardini.blogspot.com/
http://www.fieralingue.it/modules.php?name=poetshome
http://www.moriapoetry.com/ebooks.html
I Tell You: One must still have chaos in one to give birth to a dancing star! 
Friedrich Nietzsche 
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