by Verandah Porche
1. Disney
Roll from her
Garden a coach
Drawn by
Rodents.
Bear to the ball
His cinder-maid.
2. Nursery
Would Peter Peter
Put or eat her out
Of house and home
With only
Your shell
For shelter?
3. Naughty
Jack-of-no-trade
You slip from
Velvet
Pantaloons to
Moon the
Jaded stars.
4. Destiny
Had a great Fall.
Broke
Your crown.
Saw your eye.
We are what we eat.
Humble pie.
Based in rural Vermont since 1968, Verandah Porche has published The Body’s Symmetry (Harper and Row) and Glancing Off (See Through Books) and has pursued an alternative literary career. She has written poems and songs to accompany her community through a generation of moments and milestones. As a teacher and facilitator, she has created collaborative writing projects in schools and nontraditional settings: literacy and crisis centers, hospitals, factories, nursing homes, senior centers, a 200 year-old Vermont tavern and an urban working class neighborhood. Her work has been featured on NPR’s “Artbeat,” on public radio stations around New England and in the Vermont State House. The Vermont Arts Council awarded her a Citation of Merit, honoring her contribution to the state’s cultural life in 1998, and a recent grant to support the preparation of poetry for publication and performance.