Acre on Neck Creek

“I say set fires and let the foxes run

Until the heat is more than we can bear

And we are willing to endure the green

When coolness comes behind the stunning ash.”

~R. Parks Lanier, “The Foxes and the Fire”

Acre on Neck Creek

i

How I long to set this field on fire with one match

to watch the spiders fly from the field

rats race to where snakes wait with open mouths.

I fear for goats and cattle

see them devoured trying to clear the field

horses won’t go near

but to see the creek

to stand on its banks

ah, paradise and a sycamore!

ii

Young boys dream of setting this field on fire

a pile of gasoline and a bic to take care of it all

steal and scorch an acre on the creek

swing from vines or limbs

land bellyup in leavings of cattle from up-stream

and are lucky to survive the depth.

iii

Covetous field of neighboring green

more or less natural

to be cleaned, trimmed by

herds gathered by the creek

can no longer glut themselves on balding plain.

iv

But I compare

sit on my porch

walk the gravel road

hike the horses’ hill

and see from my perch the difference

no one else dreams

could plummet like a meteor

and crater my field in one natural act.