JODY RAMBO

Landscape Returning

Somewhere in a wheat field, in its gold crevasse,
                                    rests the shadow of my body.
No one in sight for miles,
                                    I lie down, back to back
                                                             in her dark silhouette.
She can say nothing. Her lips shut. She bites pearls of dust in her teeth.

Here the sky has no forbidden borders—
                                                             things vanish in all directions.
The prairie sun hovers and I fall to sleep
                       soaking in the slow energy
                                    of a whirling orbit.
           Dream after dream
                       she bends to hear my heart beating.

Hours overlap. Night comes
                                    swinging a black lantern. I wake
                                                                       in a gunshot of wings.
                                                                                              She is gone.
I forgive her nothing for these betrayals.

Lying back down under so many stars,
           I shift back,
                       enter the dark cavity of the field,
                                                            a shadow chamber, a past—
                                                plot
                                    to clip her earthbound wings.