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of his adult personality and character, and writing of them is his way of running an audit, that is, of accounting for the items in his "mental scrapbook." Several poems are sketches of relatives and friends. A partial list of other subjects may demonstrate the author's varied interests. There are works on the effects of divorce on a child, the attractiveness , even allure of different women met in different kinds of circumstances, the nature of retirement, urban sprawl and subsequent land loss, moonshine, and the picking of songs from a guitar, just to name a few. Some are developed literally, others in the metaphoric/symbolic fashion mentioned in terms of his other book. The author describes his feelings succinctly in "Autobituary": he was "Born six decades ago in Hartville, Ohio, [and] his family moved elsewhere/ in Ohio soon after . . . ,/jumping not just from town/ to town, but interstate, thumping/ into central Maine fifteen years ago/ .... From time to time he's felt at home/ . . . [but] Never a mixter, . . ./ Mr. McKee hopes that where he's going,/ he'll feel at home, since it's forever ." -William J. Vernon Offering Every morning she bakes biscuits In an old cast iron cookstove, Enough to last all day— Special recipe, unmeasured, simply known, Practiced art. Flavored with woodsmoke and lard, Good cold with fried apples or hot With the damson plum jelly made from the fruit Of branches that scraped her kitchen window. After supper, the leftovers are crumbled Atop the fence posts that surround the yard. Thanks returned, the cardinals come. We watch the altar fire. Burying Turnips At the start of winter, it becomes necessary to bury turnips beneath the frozen crust of earth. I carry the baskets filled with turnips soft as cork to the garden furrowed for spring planting. Dragging the shovel, my son follows and wants to dig the pit. I tell him to pack the straw tightly. He helps me fill the hole though he hates the taste of turnips. —Edward C. Lynskey -Victoria Barker 72 ...