-the good earth-

she has managed the root cellar with care.

it’s a working place where vegetables

pulled from the soil of the garden

cultivated behind her house nestled at the foot

of the northeastern Appalachians are stored after harvesting.

the dirt floor is rich and moist. the walls are moist,

and the air is moist.

dank is the root cellar.

the cellar at 1017 Bedford was different in its yield.

the black,— hard-packed dirt of its floor served
as stark foundation, setting the place for the coal-
fired furnace, barrel-shaped, plastered and crackling
through the winter.

the air is exhaling the stale
blandness of mold and the dry-
bitter scent of home-pressed red,

fermenting in a cask of long undefined wood.

the spiders have the same dispositions.

walk down the five crooked step-stones

to the underworld of my grandfather.

this is the cellar at 1017 Bedford.

                                quequechan