By Karen Douglass

their buildings still stand

where celibate Shakers sang

and danced with Jesus

children’s rooms, a school

women’s quarters, men’s quarters

built-in extinction

the last cowherd sings

hymns to his last four cattle

they may outlive him

signs of chastity

girls’ plain white bonnets gone

lost simplicity

finest woolen thread

iron needles thin as wire

knitting was a prayer

small hands in service

learning to make warm mittens

no hands now to wear them