Tears

Tears

Tears dammed by dust-mouthed days                                 
storm my eyes and flood my cheeks
as I walk among the barren stalks

left from summer’s harvest.
Snow geese circle and land in the field.
Whispering wings descend

and rude honks crescendo as they stride about
prodding their beaks in the dark manured soil.
Dead ears of corn hang sullenly,

testaments to a season lost, betrayed.
“Elephant’s eye” became “pie in the sky.”
I flick black kernels one by one…

he loves me, he loves me not.
Clouds darken and rain begins.
A misty softness at first,

but soon the plopping and splashing
becomes puddles in the mud at my feet.
I am drenched and my soaked hair

is dripping down my back.
I turn and slog home,
muddy,
chastened,
baptized.

A single snow goose
rises and flies east where
the sky has lightened.