Pastoral

By Jennifer Chang

Something in the field is

working away. Root-noise.

Twig-noise. Plant

of weak chlorophyll, no

name for it. Something

in the field has mastered

distance by living too close

to fences. Yellow fruit, has it

pit or seeds? Stalk of wither. Grass-

noise fighting weed-noise. Dirt

and chant. Something in the

field. Coreopsis. I did not mean

to say that. Yellow petal, has it

wither-gift? Has it gorgeous

rash? Leaf-loss and worried

sprout, its bursting art. Some-

thing in the. Field fallowed and

cicada. I did not mean to

say. Has it roar and bloom?

Has it road and follow? A thistle

prick, fraught burrs, such

easy attachment. Stem-

and stamen-noise. Can I lime-

flower? Can I chamomile?

Something in the field cannot.

Copyright Credit: Jennifer Chang, “Pastoral” from The History of Anonymity. Copyright © 2008 by Jennifer Chang. Reprinted by permission of The University of Georgia Press.

Source: The History of Anonymity (University of Georgia Press, 2008)