Sorghum Harvest

by Christy Lenzi  

Over the creek, around the bend, and up the road
we met at the molasses make where
the mule marched, neighbors laughed, and sugar juice flowed.

The men vied to stack the highest load
of sorghum cane cut from the fields
over the creek, around the bend, and up the road.

As the mule circled, we fed the press. The fire glowed
under vats of green liquid that the women stirred.
The mule marched, women laughed, and sugar juice flowed.

Dogs barked at their echoes across the hollow,
running through the naked fields as rabbits fled
over the creek, around the bend, and up the road.

October chill shivered down spines as blackbirds crowed,
and children licked the sticky, dark dregs.
The mule rested, children laughed, and molasses flowed.

In the falling dark, with stories swapped and jokes borrowed,
guitar music coaxed our voices, rising
over the creek, around the bend, and up the road.
We sang, “the mule marched, friends laughed, and sugar juice flowed.”

Christy Lenzi’s prose has won the Katherine Paterson Prize in two categories, the Eldin Prize, and the 2020 Seamus Heaney Prize. Her work has been published in Hunger Mountain VCFA Journal for the Arts, Barzakh international magazine, and Zoetic Press’ Non-Binary Review.