Poem: Montecito Hike

 

Montecito Hike

 

camphor of oleander

musky greenish-blue 

astride freshly cut dust

which cakes the wild leaves

of lupine and radish.

 

osprey-gull birds

figure-eight over acres

of deadlocked pale husks,

tresses straw blonde

on the skulls of clods,

fields and fields and fields of clods;

of tilled dirt so disturbed it shines.

 

a khaki man with runt epaulettes

orders tractors about.

he tosses a braggadocio

of mean sun and cruel earth

from which he shall render heaven.

 

above his head, in ascent 

on slopes sanitized and shrubbed,

many, many shingles of fine-kilned clay

roof the broken hills with a godliness 

of haciendas.

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9/14/24 eds