-
The Beech Nut
- Prairie Schooner
- University of Nebraska Press
- Volume 80, Number 2, Summer 2006
- pp. 184-185
- 10.1353/psg.2006.0143
- Article
- Additional Information
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Prairie Schooner 80.2 (2006) 184-185
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The Beech Nut
Shane Seely
The Beech Nut
I did not imagine
such hands could be so delicateas he cracked the beech nut open
and offered me the tiny jewel of meat inside.His palm was a field
left fallow through the winter,in which I might watch white-tailed deer
leap a fence or linger into dusk.With a finger the girth and color
of a shovel handle, he nudgedthe burred husk
and pried the soft nut free.Those hands, which I had seen
wring a chicken's neckas though they were returning the cap
to the jug of milk in the refrigerator.Those hands, which I had seen
fix tractors, fell hemlocks,lead cattle to their slaughter
by the horn. [End Page 184]The beech nut tasted
exactly as the forest smelledthat sun-ripe day
early in the winter: earthy, a little sweet,with an overtone of something just beyond
my apprehension.Years later he would wait
with my mother and the hospice nursefor death to come. With his hands
he would smooth the care home's gown,the color of a sky
in which the clouds are stained with blueby the indefatigable sun, or he would fold
his hands across his chest.Other times he would raise those hands
before his eyesand say to the shadows in the room,
what can a strong man do to leave this life?
...