predation

i forgive myself for choosing to be a predator. for sharp teeth and an active imagination. for killing my meat, in an age when killing is a luxury, not a need. i forgive myself for raising birds to be slaughtered, and for doing the slaughtering. for the gasping opened beak and warm blood running down…

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your ideal girl

i’m in love with the hydrologic cycle, and i can take apart a live chicken, dance half-naked in moonlight and firelight, build a wall, plant a tree, recognize the difference between a covenant with you and a contract with the state, grow a ten foot wall of lush green cornstalks, and i almost always laugh…

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avoidance

my hands are hardening as my heart softens. i try to hurry the process and things tear. blisters rise and sting. i bruise too easily, fall too fast. the massive cottonwoods humble and reduce me. i get small, laying on the patio, hurtling through space beneath a sky massed with leaves flecked with stars. the…

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letter home

garden catalog came today. we planted peas this week in the windy sunshine, kale & carrots. put in the spring poultry order– 47 chickens and 20 heritage turkeys, lean & dark & juicy, shipped in a raucous box next week. evenings are cold, still, and the wind is high. the weather service says sunshine, but…

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Grandfather’s Farm: A Eulogy

I should have asked you to teach me how to sharpen a shovel, change the oil in my car, milk a cow, grow buckwheat. Instead we fought, all down the years, till I moved far away and let distance do my talking. Only since I’ve proved myself, come into my own on our small farm,…

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