#21 The Search for what is Circular by Emma McKervey

The Search for what is Circular

The search for what is circular continues from the plane,

continues across the lap of the sweaty business man

clutching his briefcase even in sleep.

Below, in Texas, the Alfalfa fields are greening,

They are perfect discs, moulded by the steady spin

of the irrigation rod’s crawl in the summer heat.

The land is parched.  The small slithers and slices

of unwatered soil between these ecliptic fields is terracotta,

Nothing that can be seen from such a height grows there.

Only small circles had been witnessed before.

When ferns uncontract the clump reaches out into umbrals,

they are perhaps entirely spherical when the roots are taken into account.

The circle had been heard in the doleful call of the church bell,

then had been felt in the palm of a lover’s hand,

But in Texas it is seen in the Alfalfa field,

and in the metal frond of the watering arm.