Ellen Palendro teaches poetry at Cratchit State U, 30 miles west of the village of Winkleblue, where she lives on a hill with her husband and a collection of whale tongues. Winkleblue is about 5 miles from Memphjus, the seat of Periwinkle County. It has 13 houses and an antique store and a coffee shop and a general store that advertises "Live Bait & Fine Wine."
For the first day of winter, Ellen is teaching William Stafford, for she considers him a fine poet for winter. She is walking her class through "Aunt Mabel." In it, Stafford records Aunt Mabel saying:
Our Senator talked like war, and Aunt Mabel
said, "He's a brilliant man,
but we didn't elect him that much."
Ellen is trying to get the class to see that the emphasis is on "that," because there are a lot of folks in life we elect or select, but only so far, not that much.
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