In the Grass, by LeeAnn Pickrell

Two Girls on a Lawn by John Singer Sargent (USA) ca. 1889

In the Grass

Two girls on a lawn so soft
the one in black sleeps
her head cradled in her bent arm
the other in a ruffled white dress
props herself up on her elbow 
rests her head on her hand

As a girl I’d lie in the grass to study the clouds
Or swinging bend back over the seat
to turn the world upside down
inhaling the sharp scent of freshly mown grass
stained hands and knees

Years ago I told my brother
as we drove through hills of tall grasses
that I always dreamed of running barefoot through the grass toward someone
and he replied on the verge of divorce cockleburs hurt

Two girls on a lawn napping
a study of white and green and black
not of grass and its stickers 
how even through fabric it scratches

LeeAnn Pickrell
 
This poem was first published in Eclectica.

LeeAnn Pickrell is a poet, freelance editor, and managing editor of Jung Journal: Culture & Psyche. Her work has appeared in a variety of online and print journals, most recently in Loud Coffee Press, Atlanta Review, and MacQueen’s Quinterly. She has a book forthcoming from Unsolicited Press. She lives in Richmond, California, with her partner and two fabulous cats.