Crosscutting
Cypresses deadfall
near the delta.
Wisps blow
from their branches
as they faceplant
on the grassy knolls.
Dusk overshadows the crests,
smooth sailing wavelengths.
Beavers at the dam
take no prisoners.
Night Strands
Early nights cut from glass,
crab apple pastoral pond.
Under the burnt
orange pallor,
flower garden’s IV
drip, drip, drops.
Father’s penchant
for dozing off
before the summer sunset
predates to the farm.
Till the fields
until they smile back
or you’re weather beaten
to a different dimension
of Idaho, loneliness
preceding loneliness.
Homesteads
Grasshoppers pitching tents
among orchards, antsy campers
that cannot sit still
for longer than three seconds.
Crickets housed
in Queen Anne’s lace
and yarrow, overcrowding
in the neighbourhood.
Fifteen minutes from here
is the Frederick Banting
homestead.
Take a tour.
Pick up brochures
or insulin – both grow
on the farm.
Image credit: Russell Lee, Cherry orchards and farming land, Emmett, Idaho, July 1941, via Library of Congress
This is part of FIELDS, a section of The Learned Pig devoted to exploring fields as natural and (agri)cultural, invisible and visible, poor and productive, created and creators. FIELDS is conceived and edited by Marloe Mens.