PASTORAL

Some things endure
Despite the Circumstance
Of a Civilization
That promotes their Destruction.

Common Verbain
Turkey Mullein
And Vinegar Weed remain.
Resolute, in the pasture.

Revived by August rain
They grow surrounded
By the sun-killed
Grasses of Summer.

These Plants amidst
The dead bric-a-brac
Of Europe: Secure
In their Indigeneity.

Grounded in their place.
Indigestible
To the four Reticulations
Of a Cow’s stomach. 

Surviving
In a fissured Landscape
Where their meadow
Borders a Ravine

On a mesa
Amidst rocks
Brush and barbed wire.
Their Redoubt.