03-07-2021, 03:11 AM
The wind at Lometa is always blowing
off the northern plains
or south from the Gulf.
Yesterday it was blowing northeast across traces
winter worn fables of your passage:
your charcoal pit, the gardens you started around the cabin
a far flung empire of guava outposts
now burnt yellow by ice
like cabins raided by Comanches
the grove of oaks we cleared of cedar and brush
and the chipper, the orange metal beast
made all the way from China
we unboxed and reconstructed
and brought roaring to life
to make your dreamland mulch,
now wrapped in torn plastic tarps
huddled under a Spanish oak on the ridge.
Here in this eleventh month since that misunderstood monster
took you away from where I knew you
I remember you here
dreaming of these future works and days
growing hemp, raising goats.
Your passage was brief
but I was here to witness it
and like any apostle
I must testify.
off the northern plains
or south from the Gulf.
Yesterday it was blowing northeast across traces
winter worn fables of your passage:
your charcoal pit, the gardens you started around the cabin
a far flung empire of guava outposts
now burnt yellow by ice
like cabins raided by Comanches
the grove of oaks we cleared of cedar and brush
and the chipper, the orange metal beast
made all the way from China
we unboxed and reconstructed
and brought roaring to life
to make your dreamland mulch,
now wrapped in torn plastic tarps
huddled under a Spanish oak on the ridge.
Here in this eleventh month since that misunderstood monster
took you away from where I knew you
I remember you here
dreaming of these future works and days
growing hemp, raising goats.
Your passage was brief
but I was here to witness it
and like any apostle
I must testify.