Country Scene, by Sheryl Guterl

Photography by Paul Licce (USA) contemporary.

Country Scene
 
The sharp-focused photo 
shows a sunny day in the country 
long ago, and just yesterday.
Memory recalls 
the tickle of tall grasses,
smell of sweet clover,
buzz of bees,
hum of flies,
the clear three-note call 
of the red-winged blackbird
sitting on a rustic fence post
connected to other posts by 
tightly-strung barbed wire.
 
Beyond the fence, an abandoned
farm beckons me to explore, to snoop.
I want to pry open old latched barn door 
and peek inside the creaky, crooked outhouse.
The fence wire feels cold, rough, dangerous
when I lift it up to crawl under
on my belly. I taste mud,
ignore rip of snagged shirt
and ouch of rusty scratch.
 
Grass seeds cover my jean legs,
wheat fleas circle my eyes and ears.
I will go no further.  
It is too hot; too dusty;
too risky.  

Sheryl Guterl

Sheryl Guterl claims these titles:  mother, grandmother, former English teacher, former elementary school counselor, Albuquerque Museum Docent, alto, bookworm.  In the summer, she writes poetry from a New Hampshire cabin, surrounded by water, birds, tall pines, and campfire smoke. In the winter months, in New Mexico, lizards, sandhill cranes, and a rich cultural landscape inspire her.  Sheryl’s recent poems are in Capsule Stories, The Bluebird Word, Clerestory, SLAB, Zephyr Review, and several local anthologies.