STIRRING
Founded in 1999, Stirring is one of the oldest continuously publishing journals on the internet.
Stirring is an electronic quarterly journal.
Founded in 1999, Stirring is one of the oldest continuously publishing journals on the internet.
Stirring is an electronic quarterly journal.
ALLISON THORPE
It’s just an empty lot now | rotting timbers and weathered metal | peeking from tall dark fescue | tangles of pokeweed and thistle | a few wild daylilies | trying to fashion the world | of abandoned relics | at the small shoe factory | next door to where I grew up | listening to the machine’s familiar thump thump thump | on steamy summer nights | the windows open | my sister and I dancing | to the rhythm | my mother annoyed at the women | who smoked cigarettes outside on their breaks | their language that flowed | like bawdy romance novels | then blink | out of business | just a storage building | the lot beside | adopted as our baseball diamond | tough old scraps of tossed out leather | served as the perfect bases | until Jimmy Dunwitt broke a window | with his foul ball | and the No Trespassing signs went up | along with lectures from our mothers | when the weeds grew over the signs | we ventured back in for hide and seek | or kick the can | until cockleburs on our clothes | tattled | triggering sterner lectures | today | as the sun wallows | toward its nightly release | I view the field of my history | still a riot of weeds | memories | rising up | like ghosts of seasons past | the reek of raunchy leather | assaulting my nostrils | as I slide into home plate
Allison Thorpe is the author of several collections of poetry, the latest being Reckless Pilgrims (Broadstone Books), which chronicles several decades of country living. She now lives in Lexington, KY, and works as a writing mentor.
