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Across the street most mornings
the field’s far patch looks shorn
The light has a brilliant edge
that evens across the grass
But it’s not cut, really
This morning though the whole of it
is brown with billets and I remember
I lost you
I took the blade of my crazy
and cut us down
Now the birds come for the confused insects
They eat the field They fly away
Martha Serpas is the author of three collections of poetry: Côte Blanche (New Issues), The Dirty Side of the Storm (W.W. Norton), and 2015’s, The Diener (LSU). Her poetry has appeared in The New Yorker, The Nation, Southwest Review, and elsewhere. Active in efforts to restore Louisiana’s wetlands, she co-produced Veins in the Gulf, a documentary about coastal erosion. She teaches at the University of Houston and serves as a hospital trauma chaplain.