Falling Our Knot

The pine bark beetles have moved northward, undetected in the old border row planted for late winter runoff.

Gifts of acrid rot in low stumps and brittle tangles of branches will keep me occupied.

I take stock near April:

Rusted wheelbarrows

Hives filling with calico pollen

Seed potatoes and long-day onions slowly arriving by mail

Low sun on the new patch

A stiff, aging ankle

Maybe some time will come free.

Rain blew sideways all night from the South,

pooling on the tilled soil,

burrowing under the low porch-rails and the worn AstroTurf beneath my sockfeet

—A quick end to the morning before the new numbers sink in.

April 18, 2020

James Noble is a neurologist based in New York.

Copyright 2020, the author