Thrush Poetry Journal
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Tracy Zeman

Broad Wings above Tall Grass

                         We watch bank swallows
flitter out from a cliff face    hunting mayflies
on the wing    hikers mistake them for midday
bats    water pools below & castoff branches
                                      swim in runoff & moss


Crowding of ditch & field from row crops
hedge-apple smashed roadside
its white seedy heart exposed    a white-tailed deer
stiff eyeless & blank lay gutted
                        in gravel & mud    possess


Principle pilgrim    a circular bricked barn
decaying windmill    pasture thistle &
marsh-marigold    fleabane    streams & rivers
high after heavy June rains    run thick & brown
                        to cut one’s teeth on comfort


On creature    a dark speck in the updraft
smattering of species    swirling mass
of redtails & Swainson’s hawks    after wintering
on grasshoppers    nest on low rimrock ledges
                                      clutches of two or three


Salt Creek feeds the Sangamon in a straight line
its former course    a checkered-skipper oscillating
among hollyhocks & poppies    we climb the little hill   
loess light under our feet    a soft summer
              a horse a few hands on the common good




Tracy Zeman’s poems have appeared in Beloit Poetry Review, jubilat, Cutbank, The Sonora Review and other journals. Her manuscript Empire of Grass was recently a finalist in the Tupelo Press First/Second book contest, and her poem “Grass for Bone” was recently nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Tracy currently lives in Springfield, IL with her husband and daughter. 



Return to July 2013 Edition