Grass Studies
If we can't be aether,
I thought we might settle for grass,
and why not slender wheat, which serves
as forage for wildlife? Less populous
than bluejoint, it wasn't grown in Europe
like canary—as seed for captive songbirds—
or used the way the Chippewa used foxtail—
to kill their troublesome dogs.
(A knife to the throat is considerably swifter.)
But who among us can know her purpose?
It's just the sound of slender wheat
I like, although oat grass isn't bad,
or timothy, or northern brome,
not to be confused with another variety that's smooth
and habitat-invasive.
It's hard to know what's natural,
it's hard to learn that the grain of slender wheat
is sometimes infected with ergot,
a fungus causing lameness or necrosis.
Still, the field is beautiful—
there are grasses taller than my head.
I'm drawn to the delicacy of inflorescence,
the bend of the awn in wind.
Anne Coray’s debut novel Lost Mountain was published in 2021 with West Margin Press. Read more.
"Grass Studies" originally appeared in A Measure’s Hush (Boreal/Red Hen Press).