Needle / Plow

By Barbara Seaman

Knowing how

to pull

a straight line

will help,

but it’s depth

that matters-

being willing

to push through

the obvious weave

of the world

to the underview,

always turning

the surface over

like looking

at both sides

of an argument-

that and not being

afraid to belly

through darkness

or cut through

any weedy tangle

of threadroots,

remembering too

that while steel

looks bright

as summer,

it is harder

than a callus,

sharp as hunger.

– Barbara Seaman is a writer living in Lawrence.