Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). The New Poetry: An Anthology. 1917.

Nothin’—Somethin’

Laura Sherry

IT ain’t worth nothin’ as land goes,

And yet it’s somethin’.

Kinda nice—

A hill of boulders

Smilin’ in the sun.

I only took it because ’twas cheap.

I wasn’t one of them

That had the earnin’ guts

To pick and choose.

My girl and I have worked

To coax the crops around these stones.

She was pretty once—

Lord, now her bones stick out

Like ridge-poles in a tent.

I ain’t complainin’.

The land—

She’d say it wasn’t any good

Except to hold the world together.

It’s held her

And me.