By Matt Schultz

Here, along the field’s corrugated ridge and furrow,
the swell and swerve of moss-mortared stack-stones.
Here the Tridentine Mass of farm and pasture:
smallholdings, an economy of butter and beef.

Look how obstinate the rolling rock––
as if some proud gray-green rampart.
Again, wind-split hands uproot granite slabs:
frost and heave, the cursing of Uncle Scratch.

Matthew Schultz teaches creative writing at Vassar College. He is the author of two novels: On Coventry and We, The Wanted. His poems have recently appeared in Rust + Moth, Thrush, and Sledgehammer. Matt’s chapbook, Icaros, is forthcoming from ELJ Editions in May 2022.