Joseph Pendelton
Grave Poems of Spoon Island: Joseph Pendelton
Pappa always told me
that you should never tell all you know
and I found it to be good advice
I recall the time I got back from Eastport Maine
with my winter stores back in ‘39
and loaded them onto the wagon at the wharf
all that is except for a keg of molasses
which I intended to pick up next day
but when I went back, it was gone
now I didn’t try to find who stole it
but bided my time
not saying a word to anyone
including my wife ‘till some years later
when a bunch of us boys and I were sitting around
the stove at Prewett’s Store
Dan Farnsworth had just
given up a nickel to Dummy Goode
and when all the laughter died down
Wilfred Cummings says to me
“Joe, did you ever find out who stole
that keg of molasses off the wharf some years ago?”
and I looked him square in the eye and said
“not until just this minute, Wilfred!”
(1990)
Inspired by the book "Spoon River Anthology" by Edgar Lee Masters. These poems have been crafted by me under the title "Grave Poems of Spoon Island".
