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Argonne Egg and Berry Association
Liz Minette

Thirty of us.

Missing arms, legs,

constant coughing
from gas attacks,

flashbacks and nightmares.

Thirty of us,
soldiers.

In 1922,
we arrive
in Lakeville,
Minnesota

to bungalows
built without
electricity,

plumbing,
or insulation.

Each situated
on four rough
acres,

we are asked
to clear the land
in order to raise
chickens, grow
berries.

They call us
the Argonne Egg
and Berry Association.

And we are told
these
are the best
homesteads

we can ever
expect.

We try
to raise
chickens,
grow berries
on plots
too small,
and rocky,
filled with
peat bogs
and dead
trees.

We find out
later

they expect
us to
fail:

the bankers
who own the land,
the contractors
who work for
the bank,
the teachers
who try to
teach us
to farm on
meager
allowances.

We are told
the land is
expensive

because there
is a paved
road nearby.

We are told
the road leads
to Minneapolis,
St. Paul.

After a while,
we take it.

—
Liz Minette’s poems have found homes in Blue Collar Review, Calyx - A Journal of Art & Literature by Women, Chiron Review, Evening Street Review, and Gargoyle. She’s been a juried poet twice at Houston Poetry Fest and was part of a cohort with Winter Tangerine at Poets House in New York City. She makes her home by Lake Superior.

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