~ Delta Poetry Review ~

Gary Grossman

Alfalfa Hay

The fields in Farmington Georgia are checker boards,

each red square hosts a five foot cylinder of green

alfalfa hay—December fodder for hoofed four-foots.

Evenly spaced, a single bale sets sail every twenty feet

as if a sixteenth century armada of vegetal frigates

had sprung, fully formed, from the thick red clay.

The panorama is an unnatural natural, like male sage grouse

strutting feathers on a mating lek or Qin Shi's equidistant

terra-cotta warriors unearthed by Lingtong farmers.

The soothing nature of regularly spaced objects—

may my eyes continue to see what is

and what may be.

Gary Grossman's writing appears in 48 literary reviews and has been nominated for inclusion in The Best Small Fictions and Pushcart Prize for 2023. Gary's poetry books Lyrical Years and What I Meant to Say Was… are available from Kelsay and Impspired Press respectively, as well as Amazon. His 2023 graphic memoir My Life in Fish—One Scientist's Journey… was published by Impspired Press and may be purchased from Amazon.