Five Poems & Accompanying Photographs from The Same Field by Different Light
Sara Judy
go gold come cutting orange light
gold dust rise August light
drive through again toward sky
smear rain
pulled down by hand again fold
dust sharp cut edge orange and fold
tallow and fold come color cutting
come hands to pull it down then press
covered in fuzzed finish felt down rub
both sides but leave whole unplucked
untasted sense only to taste sage light
in mouth my own
mouth in
gold dust rise August light
drive through again toward sky
smear rain
pulled down by hand again fold
dust sharp cut edge orange and fold
tallow and fold come color cutting
come hands to pull it down then press
covered in fuzzed finish felt down rub
both sides but leave whole unplucked
untasted sense only to taste sage light
in mouth my own
mouth in
asphalt suddenly
spirals up and up
whitlow grass sings
buzzing buzzing
suddenly mouth full
oil and gold
grass gone bristling
canola yellow light cut
down wheat smother
sheaf after sheaf after sheaf
dive dying
into ditch thatch
down and press out the dying
sky hums come all undone
wheat waves wildly
while cut down
while the sundog waits for
for winter waits for
waits for snow
windswept field in false order
fold and fold wait until
the sky above the earth below
seep down and grow strange
O unsettled O unstilled
sage grass salted
gray green
bullrush gold sing
soft swish softlight
choke cherry
brambling sky
one side ash
bunchy yellow
one side water
rabbitbrush grass
more water
more field more
lake more sky
mown it does not move moan
light moan in the gold and ochre light
once cut who can say the blade
who can say the boot come crushing
desire is to taste especially to taste
a field full of light heard moan heard
tongue heard gold and ochre
sacrament never open once cut never
smother once grass
look up the
sky is
spinning
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- Sara Judy is a poet who holds a PhD in English from the University of Notre Dame, where she is currently a postdoctoral fellow. Her poetry and reviews have appeared in EcoTheo Review, Psaltery & Lyre, entropy mag, and elsewhere. With Jacob Schepers, Sara edits the literary journal Ballast.
