Poetry
Dangerous Field
Keith Ekiss
There are no imagined dangers.
A scorpion hides under rock,
amber telson curled in question.
Rattlesnakes through grass
shake their venomous rattles.
Spit out the name that poisons
the tongue. Salt thirst: throat
cracking like a reed, the day
sweats out from me everywhere.
Pause for shadow, dizzy walk.
Parched trees, not yet divided
into those beautiful and lacking.
Not even stones wear down smooth.
Slingshot snap, my pebble
never meets its bird. Empty bottle
smashed, glass and label
flattened to artifact.
Hands against earth (thorn inside).
She calls out my name, bird-rapid.
Thinking I might cross the horizon,
fear shakes me nearer to her voice.
Sticker into skin, she could heal me.
Before my mother pulls the sliver,
first she heats the pin.