American Life in Poetry: Column 035

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

Massachusetts poet J. Lorraine Brown 
has used an unusual image in "Tintype 
on the Pond, 1925." This poem, like 
many others, offers us a unique 
experience, presented as a gift, 
for us to respond to as we will. 
We need not ferret out a hidden 
message. How many of us will recall 
this little scene the next time we 
see ice skates or a Sunday-dinner roast? 


Tintype on the Pond, 1925

Believe it or not,
the old woman said,
and I tried to picture it:
a girl,
the polished white ribs of a roast
tied to her boots with twine,
the twine coated with candle wax
so she could glide
uninterrupted
across the ice--
my mother,
skating on bones.

Reprinted from "Eclipse" by permission 
of the author. Poem copyright (c) 2004 
by J. Lorraine Brown. This weekly column 
is supported by The Poetry Foundation, 
The Library of Congress, and the Department 
of English at the University of Nebraska,
 Lincoln. This column does not accept 
unsolicited poetry.

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