Nancy J. Rodwan, 11/25/2013

Current Occupation: Independent Filmmaker and Freelance Intellectual Property Rights & Clearance Specialist

Former Occupation: College Permissions Manager, W. W. Norton & Company

Contact Information: Nancy J. Rodwan is the award-winning director and co-producer of the Poetry in Pictures Series of short films. In addition, she has directed, shot and edited several other short films and a feature length documentary. She studied film at New York University. She lives in Detroit, MI. Her publishing credits include Upstreet Magazine, Greenprints and San Pedro River Review.

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Santa Fe Cattle Co., Ada, OK

 

Unlike the other girls,

No makeup or hair product.

The restaurant’s t-shirt sits

Loosely on her small resilient frame.

Hair pulled back in a functional ponytail.

Large studded belt keeping

Faded jeans rested on her boyish hips.

 

Busing tables while the other girls

Wait on customers or play hostess.

No time for giggling or gossip.

Tub filled with the destruction

Left by table twelve pulling her

Shoulders down

 

The pale narrow eyes fit neatly

With her sharp determined features.

Strong and willful.

Never mean or spiteful.

She could be a descendent of Mick Kelley.

 

She knows things,

Useful things:

Like how to get her

Siblings off to school.

Make $20 last until payday.

Which machines work at the

Suds ’n’ Fluff.

 

She also knows:

How colors feel

How words force imagination.

How long it will be until she is free

Of the Santa Fe Cattle Company.