SHERI BENNING: FIELD REQUIEM, THREE PARTS
SHERI BENNING from Let Them Rest ( Field Requiem ) …dies illa Solvet sæclum in favilla - Dies Irae 1 Zephaniah It’s true what they say. We were warned: everything will be swept away, everything consumed. Winter-killed perch, walleye, pike, white bellies, slack flags. Thousands washed ashore at Stoney Lake – fertilizer run-off, nitrogen, phosphorous, blue-green algae bloom. ℟ . It’s true. We were warned. Everything swept away. Everything consumed. Sky bled dry of midges. Locusts, bees, neurons frayed. Antiseptic silence of canola fields at dusk, muted grasshopper thrum. ℟ . Our blood poured out like dust. Swept away. Consumed. Empty Barn Swallow nests in rafters and eaves. The Western Meadowlark’s throat, an open grave. Neonic-coated soybean, canola, sunflower, wheat. White Crown Sparrows, migration delayed, anorexic, compass lost. ℟ . A land possessed o