Bucolic by Caroline Crew


 
 

I have grown long / leggy / a stringing vine
in my own hollow / ready for the tired bloom /
of green realism / in the domestic scene /
I am opened surgically / rebound in
artificial material / my red thread / frayed
from its fibres / but what of the ivy /
suckered in my pores / the small spikes
of pine / the trailing garden rose / beyond
the garden wall /back and back / the body /
the sideline of my own scene / quaint /
a question of focus / soft grasses / the soft
light hampered by the petals / of a cheap
IKEA shade / the foreground shapes / a cult
of nostalgia / or a horse / dark as memory /
galloping / what drags into view /
the synthetic scent of moss burning /
to scry in the mirror / a more convenient
lake / reflecting the already ruin /
the green arch of childhood

 
 
 

Caroline Crew is the author of PINK MUSEUM (Big Lucks), as well as several chapbooks. Her poetry and essays appear in Conjunctions, DIAGRAM, and Gulf Coast, among others. Currently, she is pursuing a PhD at Georgia State University, after earning an MA at the University of Oxford and an MFA at UMass-Amherst. She’s online here: caroline-crew.com.