"Millay’s Hair" by Ann Townsend

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend June 27, 2017   Millay's Hair   Ann Townsend

New York Public Library, Edna St. Vincent Millay archives   Because Norma saved even the grocery lists,               it was no surprise to find a lock of hair                                coiled and glued loosely into the scrapbook, crimped and rusty, more weird   and alive than any calling card or photograph,               letter, erotic or otherwise, sweeter                                than the candy kisses fixed upon the page. I shouldn't have touched it, but in those days   I was always hungry. Despite the rare books               librarian lurking, I set my thumb against it.                                Weightless, dusty, it warmed at my touch. By 1949, all the grocery lists affirmed   the same fixations: Liverwurst, Olives, Cookies, Scotch.                Liverwurst, Olives, Cookies, Scotch, penciled                                 on squares of insipid paper. By 1950, unsteady on her feet; by year's end, dead at the foot   of the stairs. As I placed the book of relics               back into its archival box, a single                                 copper wire fell from the page, bright tendril on the table. I lifted it,   casket of DNA, protein, lipids, and still Titian red.                Really, was I wrong to swallow it?            Copyright © 2017 Ann Townsend. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   "Some of poet Edna St. Vincent Millay's literary and personal archives are held in the New York Public Library and the Library of Congress. Millay's sister Norma saved, as the poem says, everything—not simply manuscripts and notebooks, but also expired dog tags and grocery lists, a raft of Millay's life detritus, simultaneously mundane, compelling, and deeply moving." —Ann Townsend   Ann Townsend is the author of The Coronary Garden (Sarabande Books, 2005). She is the co-founder of VIDA: Women in Literary Arts and serves as the director of creative writing at Denison University. Poetry by Townsend   The Coronary Garden (Sarabande Books, 2005) "Landscape with Happily Ever After" by Lynn Melnick "Double Exposure" by May Swenson "Memoir" by Vijay Seshadri Help Support Poem-a-Day   If you value Poem-a-Day, please consider a monthly donation or one-time gift to help make it possible. Poem-a-Day is the only digital series publishing new, previously unpublished work by today's poets each weekday morning. The free series, which also features a curated selection of classic poems on weekends, reaches 450,000+ readers daily. Thank you! Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038

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