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Laird Barron
Date of Birth: 3/5/70
Location: Seattle, WA
Email: lairdbarron@hotmail.com
Published In: Melic Review, Vowel Movement, Ixion, Mefisto, Undressed, Stirring V2:E6
PASTORAL (I)
summer hay is cropped carpet rolled into spiral heights.
the field is swept and flanked by graceful birches, white rods
knobbed black as antler velvet; all shades hang muted
now that red and yellow are overcome with brown. a sharp
breeze shakes fences.
the tractor slumbers beneath its shed, a hulk as patient as the rich
soil once sculpted, blade glimmering along its bitten edge
in reply to the distant birches.
chickens comb trampled flats between stump and trough
overflowed from plunging snouts, each one infant-pink,
murmuring porcine code to clustered sheep. geese honk
softly and watch the house
where the farmer is sharpening his knives.