nicole v basta
hope for its finding
salt and wood ashes, pure water
how to keep the hogs healthy
and other methods of raising
one century old, this book
the size of a stepping stone
teaches mostly what i don’t need
to know but why not follow the blue
-prints back, past defeat or at least
beyond one version
i’m up before dawn inside a hunger
i’ve just begun to feed
let me turn habit on its head
dump the dark water into the lowgrass
so the mosquitos don’t come
tell the yeast that dots the wind
of my hope for its finding of the bowl
tell the shovel that sows the faded blue
hills solid with frost not of vast cold
yesterdays but of what’s never promised
tell me, if i said well
would you think only of the water?
remember: the stone, the labor of hands
the bowl it made for our thirst
tell us— how long is the climb out
from the empty house below
nicole v basta reads “hope for its finding”
nicole v basta’s recent poems appear in Ploughshares, Waxwing, Crazyhorse, Plume, RHINO, Willow Springs, etc. Her most recent chapbook “the next field over” is available through Tolsun Books. nicole is also a Teaching Artist, a visual artist, and she creates with the blessings of sacred uselessness.