Ryland Shengzhi Li
In the Place of the Piscataway
She trots through the field, bistre brown coat glowing in the sun. From yon to yon, my eyes trace after her, and my body moves towards her, diagonally, along the perimeter of a wire fence, then a split rail fence, of the kind the settlers built in this land once flush with forest.
autumn is ending at Colonial Farm in Piscataway Park American Milking Devons graze their field
The display explains the endangered breeds of farm animals, akin to endangered species of the wild. American Milking Devons, Java Chickens, Hog Island Sheep, all of whom settled the frontier with the pioneer farmers, but have since outlived their commercial usefulness. Not that one would know any of this, watching them graze.
adagio a piacere con grazia the whisks of the bull's tail
He gets up now, following the herd, his herd, his harem perhaps for he is the only bull they say, across the field, snacking casually along the way. As for me, I can’t follow them any further, on this other side of the fence. I came to them, and for a while was beside them, but now they’ve left, and I admire them from afar as though gazing upon the moon and stars
where the mown field ends the road home begins . . . autumn wistfulness
About the Author
Ryland Shengzhi Li (李晟之) is a poet and environmental lawyer living in Northern Virginia, USA. Poetry teaches him how to pay attention and to see the beauty and interdependence of all things.