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.