Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, BY NATURE, by JANE MILLER



Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

BY NATURE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: If it could be, it would be seven o'clock
Last Line: Who will be there for you I promise, always.
Subject(s): Farm Life; Fruit; Love - Loss Of; Agriculture; Farmers


If it could be, it would be seven o'clock.
Two men who have all day
been picking peaches and pears
go back through the rows
for the fallen and pecked fruit
left for dead.
They take them for themselves,
filling the wire baskets of their motorbikes.
They light cigarettes
and pedal their engines to a running start.
Then an unexpected thing.
It cannot even be said
the sun resists setting --
in itself still something --
the sky behind it so recently
darkening "brightens"
but only by my recollection.
I surprise myself
with an angry thought
I'm as far away as you
make me, you shit
about my lover,
whom I had until this moment
the option of missing.
When I understood my being
half a globe away,
I assumed I could get there in time.
The earth is now
like a fruit a human
has knifed,
tumbling fruitlessly
through space.
You notice when you finally stop
running through your day,
at table, the dizziness,
the blown earth in the red wine.
And the constant
bruising as we fall up,
like falling out of love
where you are suddenly free,
terribly guilty
without caring.
No longer is there a single self
but a whole host
of opposition, completely random
pellets and debris,
mistresses and masters of the universe,
who will be there for you I promise, always.





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