Seventh Wife

Wagon canvas

whipped and flapped

as unrelenting wind

and rain assaulted

the desolate camp

at Winter Quarters.

Inside, bereft of mother comfort

(her own mother only

five days in the grave)

23-year-old Sarah Houston Pratt—

after surviving the winter

on cracked corn—

gave birth to four-pound

infant daughter Julia,

tenth child of apostle Parley P. Pratt,

a missionary in far-off England.

“O God, where art thou?”[1]

Sarah may have wondered.

But two months later,

her shoulders squared,

she, Parley,

and his seven other

wives were on their way

to the Great Salt Lake,

faith still intact

and Sarah driving a wagon

with her babe behind her

in a padded box.

While Parley answered

call after call to

spread the Word

to all the world,

steadfast Sarah

eschewed communal living

for a secluded farm

near Salt Lake

where she spun

and toiled and

waited,

ever waited.

Note: Sarah Houston Pratt is my great great grandmother

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[1] Doctrine and Covenants 121:1