Week 18: J.P. Grasser

MORTGAGE LIFTER, BULL’S HEART, GREEN ZEBRA, BULL’S HEART,
CHEROKEE PURPLE, BULL’S HEART, MR. STRIPEY, BULL’S HEART…

It begins and ends with the bees.
The bees split their hive.

By July, the flies were brittle and dead
from thirst. I did my dreaming in the yard
the night before, too drunk to stand, let alone move.

I slept heavy, my body slack and slung
between two plastic chairs. The work was hard
and hot. The place had just been certified,

so, no chemicals. No machines either.
It took all summer to turn that one acre
with nothing but a dull shovel. When they swarmed,

I was napping in the tomatoes, whose names I sung
tunelessly in my head.

The melody was this: I could’ve been better.
I was so in love. I could’ve been good. I was so in love.

Christ, if I weren’t singing I’d have been stung.

A former Wallace Stegner Fellow, J.P. Grasser is a PhD candidate at the University of Utah, where he edits Quarterly West.