Field
Field is pause   field is plot   field is red chigger bump where
the larvae feed   corn wig curled in your ear. Field cares not
a fig for your resistance   though kindly   gently   lay your
head down   girl   lay it down.   When ready   storm   when
summer   kilned smoothly as a cake. Awake! Awake and
wide is field. And viral. Biotic. Field of patience   of percolation
and policy. Your human energy. Come again? What for? In
field   there is no time at all   no use   a relief   the effort done
which is   thank you   finally   the very lack of you.   Lay your
head down   girl   lay it down.   In field   which has waited since
you first ascended to the raw end of your squared off world and
gazed upon your subjects:   congery of rat snake   corn snake
of all the low ribbons bandaging the stalks. Progress in field
foot sliding in matter   slick chaff in fall.   And always   field’s oboe
this sawing   a wind   that is drawing its nocturne through the 23rd
mansion of the moon. Field   is Requiel’s music and the Wild Hunt
of offer. In field   they are waiting   you are sounding. Go home.
 
Copyright © 2013 by Erin Belieu. Used with permission of the author. This poem appeared in Poem-a-Day on May 13, 2013. Browse the Poem-a-Day archive.