Femina Agricolae

(FOR DAWN LINDSEY)

“Hope sustains the farmer.”—Latin proverb

Okra leaves shiver, droplets shake and slice
Dawn’s light, and swelling clouds explode and rise.
A garden ghost, a red tail deer, blinks twice,
Takes flight, and lights beside his favored prize.

Daylight will drive the stag to woods and shade.
Australian shepherd snorts; hare darts for shrub,
And knocks Fiachre up against the spade:
His broken stature splays across the mud.

Femina picks the shards from earth beneath
The plants, when then she sees the truth:
Fiachre’s body hangs below a wreath
of Litchi thorn like Christ, the sweetest fruit!

She then retrieves the broken One and sees:
With eyes shut tight, she falls upon her knees.

DB Lindsey JR
@ 11 August 2011