Gabriel Fried

Demeter, after

Each farmer loses something of the harvest;
each has planted rows too near the forest.

I’ve lost myself in losing her.
The torch is cast aside and smolders.

I return now, after years, to work the earth
as one returns to sex: Not to sow. To rehearse.

To feel the cold dirt pressed against the wrist.

Gabriel Fried

Demeter, after is reprinted from Making the New Lamb Take (2007) by permission of Sarabande Books.

Posted on October 10, 2007 6:12 AM