Whoa! she screams, and even the rain rails
Hard against the brittle ground.
Sometimes the sky is false and other times it reeks
Without color. On those days, I see no eyes nor
Soul in the blankets of clouds that envelope this
Land. It is a land of divots, a land of fractures. It is
Something which I feel at once unsettled and at home with.
This sprawling and bland land.
Upon the porch I see the highway then the lights then the water
Tower of the ugly city three miles out. M-50 and all the lights
Whir by slow; black air seeps into the oak tree which hangs over
Her house. This land is a mother, right? or maybe it’s a father too.
It raised her when her dad’s heart lost control across the Pacific
And now she lives amid the waves, albeit the waves are clean,
Cold, and calm in all their fervor. The deer cross the cornfields
Rustling the husks. And it’s cold. It is the cold that inebriates.
It is the that cold entrenches. It is the cold that gives you all life.
Well you didn’t expect it. You didn’t expect the campos of
Corn and soybeans to be such, did you? You did not think that
Life outside the fucking concrete and the fucking density of it all
Could enchant and compel you to question who and what you are.
You don’t question nor do you ask. But the black air and the rustling
Of the leaves and the fucking silence of it all struck you like the
Crack of a hunting rifle. Even the rain rings distinct. Trains whisper
Across the distant horizon. The little lights scattered across the countryside
Make you cry. Even though you are not one to cry.
Horse hooves mark the hills. The fence is torn in a few spots, her
Dogs are always running and always losing themselves under the
Interminable sky. She grew up here and the land is hers. The land
Raised her and she felt its tendrils embed into her nerves and it doesn’t
Leave. It doesn’t leave. Wind roars softly upon the screen door
Banging shut and the house upon the hill is empty once again.
Hooves against the sand and she cries in delight. Earth rises from below.
She hollers again while the corn sweeps her up, Alone with her father.