Sherry Chandler » Lynnell Edwards
Lynnell Edwards
An contemporary satire from a Danville poet:
The Matter at Hand: or,
We Shall All Hang SeparatelyFriends, colleagues, countrymen, now is the time
when I have called you all together to consider
the matter at hand. If for too long we have stood by
and watched while the train wreck rumbled on, the message
now couldn’t be any clearer: we must step up to this pot
that we have stirred. Calling it black will not do.
The red snakes have been raised and the venom-fanged
flags have come back to bite us. Something rotten
this way comes and we are called to be men of action,
women of resolve. We must boldly go toward
this matter which has no name, which has no face,
which bobs and weaves in the shadows and waits
for our stammering, punch-drunk reply.
There is no good fight, no full circle, no justice,
in poetry or otherwise, and we mush have exactly
the right words then the hammer comes down,
relentless and ringing on our nodding, infant heads.— Lynnell Edwards from The Farmer’s Daughter (Red Hen Press, 2003)
Poem reproduced by permission of author.
Well, actually I think Lynnell grew up around Lawrenceburg and she currently lives in Louisville, after having spent some time in California, but she went to Centre College so that gives her bona fides as a latter day Danville satirist.
I may have done her a disservice by choosing this particular poem, which is not typical of The Farmer’s Daughter. Lynnell is a poet with a wide range, but her edgy take on the agrarian life calls to me as to a kindred spirit.
Lynnell is currently working on a modern reconsideration of the pastoral, an intriguing prospect.
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