What It Feels Like
to draw a long furrow with a finger,
shake out some seeds and slide
the soft edge of a palm across
warming soil before lightly patting it.
To walk outside to wave a slow wand
of glittering water, be the first to spy
a line of green fuzz. To kneel under the sun
and make leafy piles of weeds. To reach
into green tangles and snap off a sugar pea,
hold the round shine of a ripe tomato, slip
each carrot’s straggly secret from the dark.
Little did I know my peril in giving these things
to my daughters, this finely stranded
ripping away all along growing.
DEREK SHEFFIELD received a 2024 Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award for Cascadia Field Guide: Art, Ecology, Poetry. Read more.