before dispossession there was just soil by moni brar

Excerpt. Originally published in The Ex-Puritan, issue 59, Fall 2022.
 
what if this land
was not laced with rows
not fraught with trellised vines
 
what if this torn surface
was not coaxed into offering
fruit or the dying
sweetness or splendour
 
what if it was meant only
to support a hoof or
the indent of a crow’s foot not
a mouth
tamped with transgressions