Threnody
By Mary Maxwell
(This poem accompanies the essay "A Mother’s Meter,"
by Mary Maxwell '81 in the Winter 1999 issue of the Bryn Mawr Alumnae Bulletin.)In interweaving circles children A B remember
C D with their feet little girls E F G clap their hands
in draped garments sing the alphabet song inter-
weaving a dance H whose movements I significance
dithyrambic J K Demeter literacy circles is that
L M N mysterious game only grown-ups O know
how to play dithyrambic movements but since
there exists no complete P Q written R record S T of
those early dances in interweaving circles only
U fragments V the daughters of Demeter dance lost
dithyrambic movements fragile draped songs
from childhood garments once beloved but forgotten
daughters abandoned Demeter now deemed
W insignificant X in circles Y dancing Z little girls.