Open by Charles Springer

Open

by Charles Springer

Now I open on my own,
like he did with his father gone.

Defining the perimeter
begins where access road ends –

up onto the head of pasture
never to go bald.

Cutting bar no sharper
than my total vision. Watch

for life dozed off in clover, watch
for stones too big to miss, watch

for buzzards eying something
dead I soon catch whiff of, something

I don't see and never will.
Must keep going,

ducking here and jutting there
the limbs that reach out from the tree line

just to knock off my cap,
make me stop,

jump down to pick it up,
get my feet wet.