Poetry Break: Pastoral

Horizon (M.A. Reilly. California. 2010)

Pastoral
 
    - Santee Frazier

stark is the wood stove in the night
its bulbous hull a womb
                                          of popping embers

slow boiling corn filling the house
with a thick nutty perfume


what sounds but guzzle
of a pumped well
the gushing water against the metal


stark is slowness
                              scything of grass
chucking grain toward
chickens
                        low bark of hounds

gnats backlit by the sun
                                        their flight pattern
scattered in gold


song of exoskeleton
zoom of the june bug's wings
                                               lifting itself

from the screen door
and off to the damp night


far away roar of tire
bucking junk in the truck bed


slow sputter and buzz
of a mower echoed in the gully


the radio whispering
a piano that vibrated
                                gospel
when it uttered