A post in a pasture in
Texas
In a pasture in Texas there is a post.
The post is cedar and has perhaps some thirty concentric
rings
On the post, there are two boards
Or there were
One can hardly be precise with regard to their current
configuration
Though one can confirm that at last viewing these boards
Connected to the post
In the pasture in Texas
Were not in fact connected to
The lesser post that had rotted into the ground
Perhaps some eight feet away.
The post that remains
Or did remain
And does in the amber of the mind
Is cedar and its some thirty rings were perhaps once
contained within
Some twenty more
Which have since rotted into the ground
In a pasture in Texas
But not this particular pasture.
The post began as a tree of course
But became a post of the fence variety in a past life
And perhaps some forty years later was rescued from
The crumpled sheet tin storage shack
By eager fort-building youths
Intent on the fortification of their
Woodpile stronghold
Against the onslaught of some twenty to thirty approaching
Play soldiers
Mirages of the crisp heat
The post that was a fence was also a fence
In the configuration that was enveloped in resin
At last viewing
The woodpile has shifted into termite dust
The slats on the crudely erected fence rampart
Have fallen and gone
The nails the youths pounded in
To hold the slats on
The post in the pasture in Texas
Still hold fast to the heart of the tree that was a tree
In a previous configuration
The nails were the doing of each of the youths
Several taking swings in turn
Driving in the nails into the hardened core of the post
That stood at last viewing but the present configuration of
which
Cannot be immediately known
