South Field

I close my eyes and
Stand in the shadowlands.
Tall wisps of lovegrass grow
Up to my waist.
Southwind blows
My big straw hat.
Clouds go tumbling close.

I pull a shoot from a sagey clump
And walk with the sweet end in my mouth,
My long skirt winnows in the wind.
I taste the silty green.

Tomorrow the tractors will come and rumble.
The swather will rattle and roll and cut
All of it down to a raze and an end to the row.

But today it is my field of dreams
Where great birds swoop
One for the other,
And fieldmice scamper and nibble and mate,
And rabbits chew the ribosomes
Of the lovegrass where it tufts.

Yes all of this exists
In the shadow of my eyelid,
In the hazel of my mirrored marble eye.

Come and go back there with me,
Today, or better, yesterday.
Give me your hand and shut your eyes with me.

 

-jenn long