Checking Fencelines

Marriage is hands-on farm management.
Balance books with dreams and sunrises.
Chase piglets that squirm through fences.
Let kittens abide in the hayloft.
Make dogs leave chickens alone.
Collect blue eggs in a wire basket.

Cultivate to reap.
Weed between bean sprouts.
When you hear the creek run,
bless it.

Every day, every week, every month
walk the perimeter of your marriage.
Look inward from the boundary,
seedlings here depend
on the sprawling tree there.
See one big picture
in your album pages.
Savor hedgerows.
Check the fenceline.
Share repairs.

The sun sets on the mountain
at different times each day.
Let love rock you
to sleep.

 

*This poem will also be out in June 2017 in Broadfork Farm to be published by The Poem Box.

 

About the Poet:
Tricia Knoll is an Oregon poet whose work appears widely in journals and anthologies. Ocean’s Laughter (Aldrich Press) records 25-years of change in a small town on the Oregon coast. Urban Wild (Finishing LIne Press) investigates how humans and wildlife interact in urban habitat. Website: triciaknoll.com

 

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