Excursion


The house was gone, of course.
Chin-high grass had closed on the exact spot
near a broken silver maple.
They looked for the garden area
through pin whites and laddervine,
the path lost in the glare of noon.
Sumac crowned a random tangle
once kept lawn. Deer flies
surprised them by the meadow wash
clabbered into tufted mud.
Uncertain, one turned around between carlsbane
and green rankle. He almost fell
over the fence, a piece of wire
embedded in ground covered with
monkmange, chokepea, creeping Uriah,
hopclod, hornbine, wotnot, scrat,
saproot, croneteeth, devil's periscope,
glebe beets, dandyjack and pink blague.
There they saw a furred head
appear above its excavation
and flick out of sight
in that unhinged yard.

After a while, she stole a nail
that had been used or dropped.
Past a fan of Ketchcaps
they found themselves on Field Road.