Miss Oregon 1946

Miss Oregon 1946 buys groceries at Ralphs,
         flirts with me, presses hard
into cantaloupes
shakes watermelons
sniffs bananas, says
         they pick these darn things too green,
         before the sugars sweeten
         call me snobbish, but I won't buy green bananas!

       She married a white corn farmer
                sixty years ago, she loved
                how he would rise at 4AM
                join brown skinned hands
& touch corn stalks like anointing the feet of Jesus.  Together
they ship food to starved children
                we feel sorry for on television.  They never
                watch television.

                He has Alzheimer's.
         She has a smile

         begging admiration.  I imagine
how she cart-wheeled into frat boy hearts
         as an Oregon State Cheerleader
         atop the pyramid,
decades of folded skin smooth again, the Miss Congeniality smile
         that impressed her judges
         that captivated her husband.  I imagine
long auburn hair
curled precisely 
         for all those foolish boys to gawk at.

        She continues
        to grow white corn, & tend
        to her husband.  She is a stranger
        some days.
               Though he always smiles at pretty ladies
               he can not remember
               how much he loves her,
        so she remembers
               for him.