A Road In Kentucky

A Road in Kentucky

Robert Hayden

And when that ballad lady went

to ease the lover whose life she broke,

oh surely this is the road she took,

road all hackled through barberry fire,

through cedar and alder and sumac and thorn.

Red clay stained her flounces

and stones cut her shoes

and the road twisted on to his loveless house

and his cornfield dying

in the scarecrow's arms.

And when she had left her lover lying

so stark and so stark, with the Star-of-Hope

drawn over his eyes, oh this is the road

that lady walked in the cawing light,

so dark and so dark in the briary light.

(Image via the Nite Tripper: Sand Lick Road, Caldwell County, KY, 1930's)