"Dear Peg"

Sharing Stories

January 1, 2023 at 2:01 p.m.

Margaret Mitchell and her book

...by Charles N. Inge

“Dear Peg”

I’ve not read her grand novel…
only a biography.

It spoke to me by the hour.
I’d love to have met you, Margaret!
Listened to your syllables.
They spilled like a carnival
to help you with that hurtful leg,
to buy you clothes that weren’t ready made,
to stop the autos from hurting you.

Oh, to make you safe, you blue-eyed you!
To medal you
for the help you gave to others.

I wish you could have been a mother.

I’d make your problems evaporate…
and bring roses when we date,
shoot off cannons on your birthday,
lower flags on your death date.

All my life I would spend.
Why did you have to go with the wind?

Charles Inge is a longtime Lyndon, Washington resident and frequently used poet and writer for Northwest Prime Time. This piece is, of course, an ode to Margaret Mitchell and her famous book, Gone with the Wind. Her nickname in college was Peggy.

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