Field Study
by Samantha Malay
published in Sheila-Na-Gig, volume 3.2, Winter 2018
https://sheilanagigblog.com/

reprinted in The Path of Birds: Poets on the Rise (Flying Ketchup Press 2023)
ISBN-13 978-1970151404

Could you see the shape of here from there
as you rode your bike along the shore
the summer you turned twelve?

feasts of gleaned fruit
a place to sleep between the trees
and water in the ditch

Did you trade mystery for certainty
one night around the dinner table
or some dawn
in the fishtank glow
of a livingroom on Orchard Street?

beneath the baby’s blanket
we found thistles in the grass
and upturned nails

Did birds fly near
when you circled home
and stood in the unlit kitchen?

with a lack of ritual
we held your hands
and knew no words to harbor you