At Holmesburg
Susannah Nevison
All I saw before me were acres of skin. It was like
a farmer seeing a fertile field for the first time.
DR. ALBERT KLIGMAN
If one takes the bird's eye
view, it's easy to see
how a field becomes
a fine-tuned system
designed to give us
exactly what we want:
row after row of finely
turned earth, pliant
beneath specific tools,
which we sharpen
in dark houses after
a long winter's sleep,
which we drag across
the earth until it yields
a pattern we can work
with, a matrix we bless
with growth, control
for weeds, eradicate
what shouldn't take.
What we want is to push
the boundaries without
giving way to disarray1.
To see what might
survive these methods
is what we want, to raze
what fails us. Summon rain.
Under ideal conditions,
it's anybody's game.
