There's no need to deny it, for
one can sort of tell - and if we
haven't gone there, ourself, per-
haps we ought to.
But, yes, to go through that mode
of election - with all those con-
testants around, tugging at us in
one direction or another - is a
trial not to be revisited anytime
soon. To have to learn that none
of this ever registered at all,
never was measured or counted or
lasted, and left no trace behind -
Mother always warned about Iowa,
and now one can certainly see why.
What's hardest to endure, indeed,
is the thought that she might ev-
er have heard of it. No wave was
ever meant to be of grain.
