Carla Schwartz

---

Farm Life

I’ve called off the folks who bale their hay—
the grasses—growing in my fields—
that now sway quietly in the wind

I called the hunter, who from the blind
he’d built in my stand of pines
picked off deer in his sights,

to say he’d not be hunting here
anymore. There, look, a doe,
her fawn chewing the raspberries—

plants and all—berries my wife
won prizes with—
I haven’t gathered since she’s gone

and now can’t see well enough
to pick the fruit with these clouds
in my eyes. The sky

has begun to cloud. I had the pool
I used to tend filled in. My wife—
no longer around to swim.

Today the hunter shared his last
venison—he brought it in marinade—
I asked would he also bring

a six pack, no, a case, oh a six.
How much longer will it take
before I empty my fridge,

before I’m done with all this?

 

---

Carla Schwartz                           

Poet, filmmaker, photographer, and blogger Carla Schwartz’s poems have
appeared in Amsterdam Quarterly, Aurorean, Eastern Iowa Review, First
Literary Review-East, Fourth River, Fulcrum, Cardiff, Channel, Common
Ground, Glassworks, Gyroscope, Ibbetson Street, Inkstain Press, Leveler,
Lost River, Mojave River Review, Mom Egg, Naugatuck River, Oyster River
Pages, Paddock Review, Panoply Zine, SHARKPack, Silkworm, Solstice, Soul
Lit, Submittable, Sunlight Press, Sweet Tree, Switched-on Gutenberg, Tales
from the Forest, The EAR, Triggerfish Critical Review, WCAI Poetry Sunday,
Wild Word, With Painted Words, and Zingara Review, among others. Her books
include Signs of Marriage (Finishing Line Press, 2022), Intimacy with the Wind,
(Finishing Line Press, 2017) and Mother, One More Thing (Turning Point, 2014).
Her CB99videos YouTube channel has 2,400,000+ views.

Learn more at carlapoet.com, or wakewiththesun.blogspot.com
or find her or Twitter, YouTube, or Instagram @cb99videos.
@cb99videos.