Muscatine

In a Midwestern town named             for sweet grapes                   she grows up willful marries badly             to spite her father                               swims in a silence stronger than wine             Or say                   she really loves the man Or doesn't             loves her chance                   to travel north bright dry meadows             alfalfa and sudan grass                               Her waist       thickens she bears              two children     tells them                   she swam the river     stealing melons       how she let them              bear her                   over rip tide       She leaves his bed when his heart begins              to fail       Or she never loves him              can't erase       her first mistake takes     the hired man                   fruitless years                         one as good as another       her green       unwieldy story