Flat Creek

by Katherine Smith

The horses graze on frost-covered grass. 
A hawk glides over the glittering  
ringed by blazing trees. 
The pasture’s perfumed with frost and silence. 
Already the orange webbing of plastic 
marks out where the new houses will be, 
where, last summer, a herd of young cattle 
trotted towards me with curious eyes 
The walls will go up, there, where a man 
from the utilities company paces the valley 
and climbs into his truck with a sad little wave 
saying “sad to see this farmland go” 
as he marks out the path of electricity. 
where the human drama will unfold  
with parents and children, lovers and friends. 
A teenager will run to her bedroom on the second floor 
and slam the door weeping over her boyfriend, 
angry at her mother and father who stand helpless 
in the kitchen smelling of fish and garlic 
where now there is only dawn and the hawk’s shadow 
on the rippling water of the shallow creek 
and the horses grazing on frost-covered grass.

Katherine Smith is from Knoxville, Tennessee. Her recent poetry publications include appearances in Southern Review, Boulevard, North American Review, Ploughshares, Mezzo Cammin, Cincinnati Review, Missouri Review and many other journals. Her short fiction has appeared in Fiction International and Gargoyle. Her first book Argument by Design (Washington Writers’ Publishing House) appeared in 2003. Her second book of poems Woman Alone on the Mountain (Iris Press) appeared in 2014. Her third book Secret City appeared with Madville Press in 2022. She works at Montgomery College in Maryland.