Denise Jarrott

FRAGMENTS SALVAGED FROM THE WOOD STOVE, FROM THE JOURNAL OF PHILIP DE GREEF, 
BIG STONE CITY, SD 

c. 1880-1881

1.
october it began to snow and
[text mangled]
my name is  
                        farmer boy
                        [              ]boy

2. 
[every?]thing burned         
        cold
        blue center of, 

[ god? ]                       breathed into a dying calf 

[                                     ] rabbit shrieking 

3. 
november

salt pork 

4. 
snow through the outhouse slats four-holer she called it
'goddamn.' [                                                                                      ] knuckles
whiskey [

                                                   ]blood. 

5. 
january

lime kiln [                        ]cracked  [
]. my head against the wall

no sleep again 

dark hair                    a pillow embroidered lazy daisy

stop. stop, stop [

                     
                                              ]warm milk        

6. 
law of [                       ]     

    crows even have gone.

by the light Agnes sews [        ] glowing when I got up
again saw a face [                      ] dreamed of green

[                                            ]so tunneling was resorted to.

7. 
woke up hollering for [badly damaged]

8. 
ate nothing but watery jam 

                   wild strawberries (rare) [illegible ] berries, chokecherries (plentiful) [

                   ]rotting            boys awake to shovel.

9. 
february 6
red by the fire of           [page torn on right side]
Bridget and the girls
glowing
the hour I first
went up the attic
fixed the hinge
inside for days
I no more believe
spring will not come

10. 
bitter [

                  ] ugly

11. 
dream of snakes all over me
12. 
dream of mother killing a chicken, which turned into a snake.

13. 
dream of snake latching onto my arm, not letting go.

14. 
dream of snake tied to an ash tree being whipped over and over again with sticks by my boys. watching it happen. 

15. 
dream of talking snake

                                   "remember the winter of [        ]

                                     do not forget even when you're singing to [

16. 

dream of snake again

17.

I left the country at an early age, met her and married. Had children        dark hair, her
blackberry bush, sand plum.                                                                 stockyard, I learned to hate. I came
here to this place to                                            [paper badly charred]

no God, no [                                                             ] darkness.

                                                                                       I will lay to rest my failed body. 

My partner and I visited Salem, Massachusetts for our honeymoon. We had decided on a whim to drive halfway across the country and stay in a bed and breakfast. While we were there, I allowed myself one purchase: a tarot pack illustrated by Robin Wood. I still have it, and use it often, and its travelled with me everywhere. 

Denise Jarrott's work has appeared or is forthcoming in petri press, Dusie, CutBank, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, The Volta, Pith, Bat City Review and Gigantic Sequins. She lives in Colorado.