Hearken

Hearken

At the hard-brown sunflower stalk edge
of a sage steppe town, withered poplars,
abandoned single-wide trailers, September
finishes cool and rainy, a begged-for kiss:
blackbirds flutter-mad in a field of cut alfalfa.


Title poem of a Red Shuttleworth limited edition chapbook from Bunchgrass Press, Hearken is also included in Shuttleworth's Woe to the Land Shadowing (Blue Horse Press, 2015), a poetry book available on Amazon.