Linda Kornasky

SPURNING A DEAF EAR

Like me,
Jimmy Stewart had one deaf ear,
Not just in the Christmas movie
but in his wonderful life

An endearing man
we feel warmly
his loss, watching while his end-
earment strikes us
With Mr. Gower's open
handed cuff
And the blood runs

I tell people on my "bad" ear side
pardon me
I'm just like Jimmy Stewart, you know,
in that movie
in his wonderful life

In his real life?
they ask, so sad,
so real,
their pity, another cuff
and again blood runs

* * *

LUCKY LIVE OAKS

My two live oaks
were born lucky
about a century ago
on what was then
Southern grassland.

They sprouted in bleached
prairie grass, contending
with cactus and wildflowers
and sun, and being lucky,
they grew up together.

Now, in glossy maturity
these trees shade a mowed
matte-green front lawn and
the cracked pieces of
driveway that sit perched
on hidden roots.

On sunny days,
my boys ride their scooters
fast, yet painstakingly,
under the wide trees.

Each time I stop to watch,
I have to smile at how
the boys, riding together, field
the maze of cracks and acorns
so well that they, like the trees,
never fall...never run out of luck.

Linda Kornasky is an associate professor of English at Angelo State University in Texas. She has published poetry in The Wolf as well as articles on deafness and disability politics in the writings/life of Ellen Glasgow. She is also the founder and editor of The Journal of Texas Women Writers, an online scholarly journal.