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Prairie Schooner 77.3 (2003) 116


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The Beginning

Maggie Smith

In those days, I was a door blown open
by wind. My body was strange to me:

What was I made of? A question I was slapped
for asking. I knew only the field's sweet,

dark soil smelled good enough to eat. I peeled
back the husks until my hands were raw.

Then the soft, edible fruits of the body,
sweeter than corn sugar, were all I knew

of that place. I peeled to the skin and cradled
a grown man with my body, rolling

over him, over him, matting the cut corn.
There was light then and the light was good.



 

Maggie Smith received her MFA from the Ohio State University. She teaches creative writing as the Emerging Writer Lecturer at Gettysburg College. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Poetry Northwest, Gulf Coast, the Beloit Poetry Journal, Passages North, Mid-American Review, Two Rivers Review, Phoebe, Roanoke Review, and others.

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