abandoned farmstead -- a blip in the flat-wide spaces of the industrial-agro-manufactured prairie the barn, dilapidated the vehicles & implements, rusted weeds growing from every crack tall, blonde grass - waving like ripe wheat - stands in both front & back yards something has died on the prairie something is returning to dust & weed something is lost
the cow barely moves, and yet its clang is constant from tugging dry grass
with field cleared, the farmer leans on his scythe, and eyes cloud figures
the tractor idles in the end-row, chugging and sputtering, with a rattling exhaust flap soon the tractor lurches into straight-line locomotion, chugging down the row, carving out furrows, peeling soft, black soil aside the cut worm does not forgive, but neither does it know what hit it -- some thunderous storm, monotonously rolling nearer - becoming more all-pervading - until it starts to fade, but by then the worm is halved everything becomes something else: worm aerates soil and then becomes food for the tugging bird
blossoming buckwheat pretends to be a path behind the ripe rice
in autumn, hay bales cast long shadows on close-cropped fields
in pale-brown mountains, we round a curve to see a lush oasis
Tiger Riding for Beginners 