[Hollylane]

I love this because I like to think of myself as a mix of Scarlett and Melanie. Scarlett first, Melanie second, and somehow still, a west coast liberal.






Terra

by Faith Shearin

I grew up watching Gone With the Wind
with my grandmothers, rehearsing

for my life as Scarlett or Melanie. On the bright
steps of my southern childhood I practiced

pinching my cheeks, holding my breath
while someone else tied my corsets.

I could make a dress out of curtains.
I could deliver a baby while, outside,

Atlanta burned. When the wagon took me
home to Terra I would save the plantation

by murder or marriage, my hat tied
beneath my chin in a cheerful bow.

Like Melanie I would forgive anything,
befriend prostitutes, donate my wedding ring

to the soldiers. Someone would kiss me
in a field where cotton no longer bloomed.

I would want whatever I could not have.
I would die trying to have another child.

My husband would never recover from
loving me: my shape on that marble staircase,

too restless for an afternoon nap.