Abstract Blues by Jacob Erin-Cilberto

for William Carlos Williams

wheelbarrow's dilemma
rain under its skin
rusty repose
a farmer's hands crooked from life
the chickens gone hungry
sustenance flew the coop
the grass around his castle
trampled hopes with suspendered eulogy
like an emptied moat
an acre of being drained
erosion's implement
the only tool left
to wield.