“SLOUGH STRAW” won the Writers Rising Up! 2012 shared 1st Prize, and won the Inland Empire California Writers’ Club Fall 2012 2nd Prize of $50, judged by Gayle Brandeis, and was published online in IECWC “Fresh Ink.”
 |
| This is my photo the poet says inspired her. |
There is nothing delicate or pretty
about the way hay rides in the ditch
sour grass and shadowy, hiding things at night
Hardy cohabitant, maker of air
Succumbed to snow? No.
The scorching wind pummels it without winning
The drenching rain leaves nothing
but spots of wet and dry mold
It stands in spinebinding cold
Herbicides turn it red, apparently dead
embarrassed, but it browns up again
and resumes healing the damaged earth
And still it stands,
witness only to its own existence
as if its only purpose were to protect its young
New growth unaware of its prelude provider
fights for space up through its smothering guardian
the flexing bright green babies so unlike
their ancient battered predecessors
...and the little grass says, “Look how beautiful I am!”
Does it listen to what the straw has to say?
Or does it say, “You are old and wasted, man or m’am.”
...but in its DNA,
is everything the straw wanted to say.
