GIVE & TAKE

for Ken Irby

bins full * barn doors shut
harvest over * sixteen hour days

taking it all in * hauling berries
from the gleaner's belly

to the grain elevator at Haggard
dust settling * an ocean of wheat

vanished * odor of midnight skunk
run down * tossed in the ditch

pheasants walk the stubble
dazed * hawks swoop for prairie mice

unsheltered * proud fields chopped
off at the knees * waiting for

the tractor's next torture
anhydrous ammonia * 2,4-D

chimes tinkling on the porch
blades of the windmill turning

wind to power * desert to farm
how quick the earth kneels

giving in to the tricks of
machinery * the knife-edged

discs & how fast we come to
expect her submission

stalks bending before the blow
our tables full of grace

art goodtimes
union of street poets
vincent st. john local / colorado plateau / aztlán
kuksu brigade (ret.) / san francisco