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 disarray.

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.