Pastured

Pastured
Lesley Sieger-Walls

You learn much in a pasture,
one carved by water and wind.

You follow the form and hazard
of dry cow paths,
deep footholds that bend you toward water,
toward a well you have witched.

The levels of a pond
now reveal the land to you,
its plenty or its lack.

You hike its hills,
where some see only its flatness.
To them, this is a great nothing.

To you, a quiet fullness:
the history of deep-rooted grasses,
the shadow of a passing ocean.