Poetry by Kemeny Babineau : Terrain.org

Upper Canada, 1800-1840

Chaos of trees at first, inscrutable

leaves obscure

what we left

behind the Rising

Sun

Now its life in the clearing

hair like wheat\ in ruffles of wind

downcast potato eyes

and ears of corn

that hear

their own thin rustling

With the slow stitch

of a split-

rail fence, we sow

a quilt

-ed field and wrap

tight fear in

Town and Country: Now and Then

In enormous houses

practically, at sea in them

                                      [like a box

our parlours empty

                    Front

entry at home

in vacancy

Will weathers change-

take its toll? roll us out

on deck

Will the land                    ( (that rings us)

give us back

                    such legs?

Machinery in the woods

saplings push thru gaps

and thicken there

Not the machinery

and not even the mechanistic

that fouls

the machine shall fall in the forest

unharmed, warblers

perch upon it

flowerstalk

above it

Rust heap grows

under it

industrious ants

rebuild it



	Home : Archives : News Terrain.org : https://www.terrain.org ISSN 1932-9474 © Copyright 1997-2021 Terrain.org. All rights reserved. Terrain.org is a publication of Terrain Publishing.