The Barrier
is right in front of us not even moving attached to us like a kind of faithfulness not distancing itself or keeping its distance we often lean on the barrier or stand next to the barrier touching the barrier in order to feel what the barrier feels cleaning up the area around the barrier as if we’re taking care of the barrier not even struggling with the barrier not trying to break the barrier I mean laws are broken laws collapse along with the rule of law while the barrier remains intact it’s not that different from the solid state to be honest we don’t even know if it’s the only barrier or if there’s something beyond the barrier the barrier is keeping us away from what if it isn’t anything we care about? What if there isn’t anything? Sometimes we think it’s pointless or it’s hopeless like a random barrier or arbitrary it’s just what we think when it keeps us where we are like the kind of faith that isn’t even rewarded
• • •
Field
I’m getting out of the city and finding a field to lie in, not plowed under or overgrown, I don’t care what’s underneath or on top of it, not picking a spot or picking my favorite spot, not one of those model fields that’s full of content, or the kind of battlefield you need to bleed on, it’s not a field anybody’s taking care of, not even breathing or pausing to breathe, lifting off and coming down in rows or furrows like the field that extends to the end of the field in Street View, not reaching in to take something out, honestly I don’t care what’s inside, when I find a field I press my heels into the grass, flattening my knees in order to look over them, not afraid to lie on my back, as if fear is a form of proneness, pushing my arms against my hips and pressing my lips together to squeeze out the shadows, I believe I’m light enough to lift off and heavy enough to come back down
• • •
Peter Leight lives in Amherst, Massachusetts. He has previously published poems in Paris Review, AGNI, Antioch Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, New World, Tupelo Quarterly, Matter, and other magazines. This is his second appearance in BoomerLitMag.