Irrigating Turn

A week or so ago Cameron and I had the opportunity to take an irrigating turn in Mantua. We had three hours to get the water from the main irrigation ditch to as much of the lawn and trees as we could. Lots of memories of similar turns in the past. The favorite memories are those late night turns when much of the irrigation was done by flashlight and moonlight.

The following is an excerpt from the poem Stewards of the Water:


Standing in the pallid darkness
Shovels in our hands
We see the moon
Rising in the eastern sky.

It will arc above us all night long
As we perform the ritual of preparation
For the black and silver water
That approaches in the darkness.

. . .

Now we watch the silver water hurry in the furrows,
A liquid sleight-of-hand that juggles light,
As it comes to sacrifice itself
Upon these altared fields and gardens
As it comes to nudge the green plants
Through the softened soil
And send them spiraling within the precious air.