Land Girl
by John Johnson
Once the setting-out lines have all been set and the prospect comes to bear, she follows a simple algorithm in the attitude of a cornstalk toward the sun; holds in one hand nothing, and in the other a figure she holds in her mind, and with leather gloves and a good sharp axe solves for the unknown.
John’s poems have appeared most recently in The Collidescope, Hidden Peak Press, The Prose Poem, Right Hand Pointing, and Sublunary Review. He is the author of Toss Repeat, winner of the 2024 James Tate Prize (to be published by SurVision Books in 2025), and co-translator, with Terry Ehret and Nancy J. Morales, of Plagios/Plagiarisms, the poetry of Ulalume González de León, winner of the 2021 Northern California Book Award for poetry in translation.