Fencing in the Farm

“Eternity And A Day” by Dominique Elliott

This field is tough, a laborer thinks
out loud before thrusting a post hole
digger at the grass not growing into
the forest it had dreamed of being.

My partner keeps at it until he rings
a rock like a buried bell: a one-note
song chips earth’s bone as we fence
in the New Jersey fields of summer.

I free the rock with my fingers, then
watch Victor stab the digger deeper
into the hardnosed ground when the
man in the house yells to pitch hay.

We walk back to the farm and stand
in the hot shade where we take turns
drinking from the long hose that will
fill the water troughs in the morning.

The colts are in the stables, restless
muscles twitch like creativity aches
to run free before another rail fence
surrounds the ground as far as I see.

about the Author

Garth Pavell’s poems can be found in the recent or upcoming issues of Broadkill Review, Epiphany, MacQueen’s Quinterly, Rise Up Review, and Stone Circle Review. Garth worked in publishing and philanthropy where he learned everything is negotiable. He now writes with the sun in his eyes on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Connect on Instagram @garth_and_the_unwieldys. 

about the artist

Born in Belgium, Dominique Elliott is a multimedia artist and professor. She holds an M.F.A in visual design from UMass, Dartmouth and is a grant recipient from the Georgia Council for the Arts, and the National Association of Television Program Executives. Her work has been showcased internationally, and her documentary “Flying the Beam” is included in the Eisenhower Presidential Library collection. Much of her work is concerned with various facets of memory, nostalgia and the interplays of word and image. She applies the same ethos to poetry, experimental film, documentary film, painting, mixed media, photography and motion graphics. She lives on a plant farm in Georgia with her husband and their four cats.