Sunbonnet Sue

The true character of the historical Grace Marks remains an enigma.

—Margaret Atwood

Prim and faceless, saccharine sweet

in ginghams and calicos.

A very good girl who brought joy

during the Great Depression

with her cute profile—bell-shaped

dress, capped sleeves, chunky shoes

peeking out and trademark bonnet 

that hid her face, affording anonymity

as she watered flowers, walked

a puppy, played with the baby.

A simple appliqué pattern

perfect for beginners.

Quiet, demure, pastel.

All domesticity and silence

for she had no mouth.

They gave her no mouth

thus, feminist quilters killed her off

in 1978. Twenty blocks,

twenty tragic endings—death

by lightening, snake bite, self-immolation,

Jonestown Kool-Aid, shark

attack, mob hit—I get it

but now we’ll never know 

the Sue behind the bonnet

that very good girl with a task

for every day of the week:

washing, ironing, mending,

gardening, cleaning, baking, resting.

Cindy Veach is the author of Monster Galaxy (MoonPath Press, forthcoming), Her Kind (CavanKerry Press) an Eric Hoffer Montaigne Medal finalist and Gloved Against Blood (CavanKerry Press) a Paterson Poetry Prize finalist and Massachusetts Center for the Book ‘Must Read.’ Recipient of the Philip Booth Prize and Samuel Allen Washington Prize she is poetry co-editor of MER.