| Novels | Short Stories | Fact Sheet | Jo's Art | Jo's Life | Main Page | |
irrigation ditches squaring the land
alfalfa sweet and purple, barley oats, sorghum
clover with cows grazing, cows staring into distant nothing
sweet potato vines drying on their mounds
sweet corn in rustling rows
watermelons
(neighbor boys raid the patches on summer nights,
cutting plugs into melons to find the ripest one
neighbor boys wander in the warm dusk,
hunting pheasant, quail, ducks, doves in and out of season
rabbits, weasels, gophers, anything that moves,
finding skunks sometimes--serves them right,
baby predators with their .22s)
at night, dog packs trotting busy busy in the fields,
barking at the moon
on irrigation nights, my sister and I waterwatch,
lie on our backs on the ditchbank, grass tickling our necks, arms, ankles
listening to the sizzle-pop of the water as it creeps between crop rows
reading out the constellations, naming stars we know
talking on and on about the meaning of life and other such profundities
Since then
I've been to college where I learned more about learning
than I knew before
but not much else
Since then
I've stood in a classroom supposed to be teaching
learning more important things than any I
chanced to be stuffing in my students' heads
Since then
I've sat at a typewriter, then a keyboard
excavating from my head and gut
all of the above
Since then I've loved and hurt and given hurt
I've tried some things and failed at most
I've learned this one thing and maybe it's enough
The best time
is dreamtime
is lying on your back on a warm summer night
listening to cool water creep and
talking absurd profundities
with whoever lies beside you
sister, lover, friend
jo clayton
Copyright © 2005, The Estate of Jo Clayton