vignette / the enlightenment of the meadow / 1950

I learned the mechanics of sex in the meadow on Healy Street

behind my house and adjacent to Rachlin's junkyard.

it was Michelle Sperling who whispered the secret to my ear.

she was older by about a year and whenever she came my way

it was met with a great deal of visual satisfaction.

in the meadow were two goats chained to an iron horseshoe stake,

the goats, feasting on the stiff meadow grass. 

knowing to what end would have only frightened me.

they belonged to a cranky upstairs neighbor of my aunt Pauline,

the first born of four sisters to Pietro Pieroni and Rose Giambastino.

in the meadow Michelle Sperling said:  "the man puts his thing inside

the lady’s thing where she pees.”

the usually hectic but fascinating supper table was, I must confess,

mostly weird-as-hell that night. 

Quequechan