Field Guide
The stars are pinned between the leaves
of the trees, and love is only a harbinger,
a regular Boy Scout handbook
of things not to do, and how to do other things,
small chores you’d never think of,
and supper gets cold on the table.
But I can’t leave here without
taking you with me.
And the formal customs we once had,
like wearing red during hunting season,
are only signposts pointing the way
in and out of the territories—
colored leaves floating on the water,
hesitant, before the rains come.
Copyright Credit: Cynthia Zarin, “Field Guide” from The Swordfish Tooth. Copyright © 1989 by Cynthia Zarin. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc.
Source: The Swordfish Tooth (Alfred A. Knopf, 1989)