Field of Vision

Abstract

Field of Vision Margot Kahn (bio) Feathery as a frayed hem,in the wind the hay field moveslike the tufted manes of a thousandhorses running. No—it moveslike the pleated skirts of a thousand girlsswishing as they walk to school.After school, there was a girl's fieldwe'd crouch down in, curl and shiverlike fawns as someone's legs passed byso close it seemed impossiblethey'd miss you. They were torturesin equal measure: the waitingand the being found. From the edgesof that field, the girl's father whistled—a whistling tune and another soundthat brought the children runningsharp as sheep dogs from the hay fieldor the fronds of the willow tree or the farfence we'd half-climb to watch the horsesin the neighbor's field, pretendingthey were ours. Last week at the post office,the tellers could barely be heardover the thousand chicks cheepingin cardboard boxes behind the counter.Their feathery non-feathers. Their cheepsof being young in a strange placewith only a small hole to see through.I didn't do well in schoolbut I have come to understandthat a bond is only as strong as a breathof air. When I learned that that girlno longer speaks to her father,I thought of her room strung up [End Page 162] with 4-H ribbons, their blue and red tailsfluttering against a floral wall.And when my son crawls into bedwhimpering a fetal cry, broken byhis parents not understanding himfor the first time, I am tender.The hay will be cut tomorrow.The raptors will come circling.We'll watch from the shed roof,where we can see the patternsthe mower cuts in the field. [End Page 163] Margot Kahn Margot Kahn is a poet, essayist, biographer, and editor. She is the author Horses That Buck (University of Oklahoma Press, 2008) and co-editor of the New York Times Editors' Choice anthology This Is the Place (Seal/Hachette, 2017). Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Poetry Northwest, Mantis, New Ohio Review, and elsewhere. Copyright © 2021 Middlebury College