Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE LOVERS, by KAREN SWENSON



Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE LOVERS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Keeping hope in the field of next year's harvest
Last Line: Dreams, he finds her barren and love spent.
Subject(s): Farm Life; Love; Agriculture; Farmers


Keeping hope in the field of next year's harvest,
he does not love what she is, but what he thinks
she should become. His present is the driest
drought, his love a green mirage whose precincts
he plots out with a calendar of crops
and flowers suitable for the season he
imagines, being her benevolent despot.
She, meanwhile, unaware of flax and barley
rowed across her breast, lies unhoed, unsown.
Counting sheaves, pretending they're her own
harvest, she garners in catastrophe
from the fields of his accomplishment.
Waking to a dust bowl of unsprouted
dreams, he finds her barren and love spent.





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