Issue 4

/

Poetry

The Clearing by Greta Wrolstad

The Clearing
by Greta Wrolstad

In a field of thousands
of wheat stalks, millions of wheat
stalks, countless wheat stalks, is the sound
of the field desiccating itself. Or the field of the sun

desiccating the field
of the soil. To the south, a house
with diamonds of glass, diamonds next
to diamonds, became a heap of ash, the diamond panes

bursting when the heat
pressed out from inside. There
were dark-particled plumes in the air:
shadow-birds, the flaws in our sky of diamond, rising

ink, dissipating,
disassembling--the charred
stalks of the charred house, where,
in a series of photographs, a child who was

loved, appeared,
her hair first blonde then
darkened, the progression crepuscular
through the passing of many years, as her eyes remained
the lightest of blues.
It is not the overturning field
that blackens her image, nor the burning
house. It is the turning sphere that turns night-ward. In

this field, only
the insects light the sky.
As embers, they travel ever-upward,
diminishing with greater height, blending into the open

air, the open
air, an opening made by an exodus.

Greta Wrolstad (1981-2005) passed away in the summer of 2005 from injuries suffered in a car accident. She held a teaching assistantship at the University of Montana and served as poetry co-editor of CutBank. A collection of her poetry is forthcoming from 1913 Press.

Read more in Issue 4

Essay Who's Your Daddy? by Michael Thomas
IYSSSS Letter from Buenos Aires by Jillian Weise
Poetry The Clearing by Greta Wrolstad
Focus An Interview with Bill Manhire