Chard deNiord




Dispatch from Putney    

 All morning the air whispered things I might forget
as I sat listening to the silence
beyond the drone of the apple sprayer—a voice
for hearing myself as someone one else:
Put down your pen and pick up a stick.
See how clearly it writes in the dirt.
What did you think?
That you weren’t the farthest point from yourself?
That silence runs out of ink?