UNDER MY NOSE

  UNDER MY NOSE ON WATER ROW



How many times did I speed
to school without seeing it, the 
place where Sudbury was "saved," 
April 21st, 328 springs ago,

when the settlers held out,
hurling back Indian warriors
who wished, claims the stone, 
to "destroy" the town, but who

themselves might have chosen
another word entirely, oh so 
many viewpoints on Water Row, 
and of more than the river, slow  

silent flowing witness, all 
invisible to me, young teacher,
oblivious, as I hurried on to school, 

lost in thought, thinking
how I would teach King 
Phillip's War that morning.


Thirty-two years 
later I finally stopped.
Haynes Garrison House marker
Water Row, Sudbury, Mass.
April 6, 2004