Tiara

Abstract

Tiara Kathleen Driskell (bio) As the Homecoming King escorted Brendaacross our football field, all heads, in unison,turned from looking at her to Mr. Rausch,our biology teacher, who sat with his wifein the bleachers, his two little kids merrilythrowing popcorn at each other, laughingand swinging their feet wildly. Mrs. Rausch was so dour looking, so rumpled,her hairdo a frizzy salon-frosted wedge,that I'm sure most thought well no wonderas we compared her to the beaming MissOldham County Homecoming 1976. Therewere insects whining in the halo ofthe field's floodlights, but Brenda, her tiara,her blue sateen gown with its princessneckline, twinkled sweetly down below. [End Page 28] Kathleen Driskell Kathleen Driskell is the Chair of Spalding University's School of Creative and Professional Writing, home of the nationally distinguished low-residency MFA in Writing Program in Louisville, Kentucky. She's the author of the poetry collections Blue Etiquette: Poems, a finalist for the Weatherford Award; Next Door to the Dead, a Kentucky Voices selection by the University Press of Kentucky and winner of the 2018 Judy Gaines Young Book Award; Seed Across Snow, a Poetry Foundation national bestseller; Laughing Sickness, and Peck and Pock: A Graphic Poem. Copyright © 2022 Berea College ...