<html><head></head><body bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><div><div class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; "><span class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; "><span class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; ">The Exchange </span></span></div><div class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; "><span class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; "><br></span></div><div class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; "><font style="line-height: 1.22em; ">Between Wytheville, Virginia<br class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; ">and the North Carolina line,<br class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; ">he meets a wagon headed<br class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; ">where he's been, seated beside<br class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; ">her parents a dark-eyed girl<br class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; ">who grips the reins in her fist,<br class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; ">no more than sixteen, he'd guess<br class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; ">as they come closer and she<br class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; ">doesn't look away or blush<br class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; ">but allows his eyes to hold<br class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; ">hers that moment their lives pass.<br class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; ">He rides into Boone at dusk,<br class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; ">stops at an inn where he buys<br class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; ">his supper, a sleepless night<br class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; ">thinking of fallow fields still<br class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; ">miles away, the girl he might<br class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; ">not find the like of again.<br class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; ">When dawn breaks he mounts his roan,<br class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; ">then backtracks, searches three days<br class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; ">hamlets and farms, any smoke<br class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; ">rising above the tree line<br class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; ">before he heads south, toward home,<br class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; ">the French Broad's valley where spring<br class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; ">unclinches the dogwood buds<br class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; ">as he plants the bottomland,<br class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; ">come night by candlelight builds<br class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; ">a butter churn and cradle,<br class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; ">cherry headboard for the bed,<br class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; ">forges a double-eagle<br class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; ">into a wedding ring and then<br class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; ">back to Virginia and spends<br class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; ">five weeks riding and asking<br class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; ">from Elk Creek to Damascas<br class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; ">before he finds the wagon<br class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; ">tethered to the hitching post<br class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; ">of a crossroads store, inside<br class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; ">the girl who smiles as if she'd<br class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; ">known all along his gray eyes</font></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px; "><font style="line-height: 1.22em; "></font></span><div class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; "><font style="line-height: 1.22em; ">would search until they found her.<br class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; ">She asks one question, his name,<br class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; ">as her eyes study the gold<br class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; ">smoldering there between them,<br class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; ">the offered palm she lightens,<br class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; ">slips the ring on herself so<br class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; ">he knows right then the woman<br class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; ">she will be, bold enough match<br class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; ">for a man rash as his name.</font></div><div class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; "><font style="line-height: 1.22em; "><br></font></div><div class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; "><font style="line-height: 1.22em; "><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></font><span class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; "><span class="" style="line-height: 1.22em; ">- </span>Ron Rash</span></div></div><div></div></body></html>