Threshing

Reduced to one note,

the low-lit violet

of kudzu and hollyhock.

Virginia creeper, Martha

Washington rose, crab apple

shed among porcupine

quills, splintered husks

of chestnuts like sea urchins,

split inexactly in the August

thunder, do you remember

the slender navy needle

of the wasp, how it angled

into the folds of our tent?

The syrup of the begonias

viscous in the humidity,

blue rime of oxidized

copper liming the hose

distilled to umber, hills

at daybreak, morning

glories with pursed mouths,

plums that hung like knuckles.

How unusual an insect

before dawn, it must have sensed

the candle, the damp linen,

the bowl of long-grain

rice like the teeth of animals

left in the sun to dry.