Dark Corner

Dark Corner - Passage 2
by Robert Morgan

Was said around home nobody
lived in Dark Corner, just
near it. For us it was across
the ridge in South Carolina.
After dark with the wind right
you could tell somebody was making.
Strong as the fermenting shade
under an appletree
fumes came chimneying
through the gap in Painter
Mountain. Whole cornfields asweat
through an eye. What focus!
Not to mention sunlight gathered on the hillsides
by the flush of cornleaves, and ground water
freighting minerals taken by sucker
roots, long weeks of play
with hoe and cultivator before
the laying by, stalks stretching
exhilarate in the July night
till sun fills the cobs’ teeth
with oil. No mention
of top cutting,
fodder pulling. Talk
of digestion in mash vats at the head
of the holler, sugar agitations,
transubstantiations, work
of bacterial excitements till
hot sweetness arrives. Comes the runoff
calling from the corruptions and burning
a ghost returned by the reflector
to a cool point. Manifests
heavy drops, pore
runny with lunar ink.

     New Republic
     July 1, 1976