1 minute read
Ruth Holzer
Poorhouse Woman at the Duck Pond
After the painting by Paula Modersohn-Becker, 1905
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She may be somebody’s mother, the woman leaning on her cane in the tired light of late afternoon. Her shirt is the shade of an old pumpkin stored in the cellar and forgotten. She’s knotted a kerchief under her chin and wears her usual brown felt hat. Her lips are pressed against complaint as she cradles her stomach where there’s a pain. The white ducks paddle and dabble in their shallow circle. Some come waddling right up to her big feet, looking for the breadcrumbs that aren’t there.
