Maura Stanton
October 2006

Re-Creation

     “Her performance with cup and ball was marvelous.”
          J.F. Austen-Leigh

Jane Austen’s steady hand could catch a ball
Over a hundred times in a wooden cup.
Tired of Genji, Murasaki rolled up
Her scrolls, then asked her servants to install
The Go board. Emily Dickinson baked
A black cake soaked with her favorite brandy.
Virginia Woolf took walks.  Over whist and tea
The Brontes soothed their passionate outbreaks.
If a girl betrayed her, Sappho got upset,
But took a swim until inspired to rhyme.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning loved to buy
Antiques for the Casa Guidi.  So why regret
An idle day?  The “genius” Gertrude Stein
Bathed her poodle, and waited for him to dry.


 

first published in Measure  (Vol. 1, 2006).