Shelling Peas
The afternoon is woven thick
with mauve wisteria scent,
the buzzing of cicadas. Across the street, hymns blare
from the Baptist church loudspeaker.
Rock of Ages, Blest for Me
Onward Christian Soldiers
On Grandmother’s front porch,
we rock back and forth
shelling peas, sliding a thumbnail
down central seams of leathery green,
fanning out the skins.
Abide With Me
Although I Walk in Death’s Dark Vale
Peas pop out, clatter in the bowl
like pirate coins as we continue rocking
back and forth, encased in sunlight,
death and war and crucifixions.
Susan Castillo Street is Harriet Beecher Stowe Professor Emerita, King’s College, University of London. She has published three collections of poems, The Candlewoman’s Trade (Diehard Press, 2003), Abiding Chemistry, (Aldrich Press, 2015), and Constellations (Three Drops Press, 2016), as well as several scholarly monographs and edited anthologies. Her poems have appeared in Southern Quarterly, Ink Sweat & Tears, Messages in a Bottle, The Missing Slate, Clear Poetry, Three Drops from a Cauldron, Foliate Oak, The Yellow Chair Review, and other journals and anthologies.