The Fields

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Who could have thought that coming together

Would push us so far apart?

Before today I was delirious drunk with every

Word you would say.

With eager smiles I came to toil in the blazing fields

Because you stood in the shade to slake my thirst

At day's end soothing with your voice

Singing the songs of freedom while I closed my eyes

To see therein my home, the birthright of a battered heart

I was happy then in my mind with the promise of a better day

Sated on wine and the tangle of hair scented with perfume

But I have been long and wont in the rows

I know not what it was

The rough hands, split and calloused, the voice humbled and unnerved

The yoke that I dragged across the earth behind me

In the shade, alone, the dark burns were not the strapping tan

They had appeared, a figure less noble than from the vantage

Stood out among the hands

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The Fields - The Courage of Intimacy by Keith Ainsworth                                                                                                                                                                        39