I stand beside the scarecrow
and look where he looks,

across the feathered gold
and green, clump of trees,

a single barn, a few dark
lines where roads divide

the fields. Clouds have crossed
entire states to get here,

their shadows in tow.
As far as we can see

is not that far, the scarecrow says.
Three miles. This afternoon

I will walk there and bring him
a picture of the horizon.

J.I. Kleinberg, a Pushcart and Best of the Net nominee, is co-editor of 56 Days of August (Five Oaks Press 2017) and Noisy Water: Poetry from Whatcom County, Washington (Other Mind Press 2015) and co-produces the Bellingham-based SpeakEasy poetry series. Her poetry has appeared in One, Diagram, WA129, Otoliths, Raven Chronicles, Calamus Journal, and elsewhere. She lives in Bellingham, Washington, and blogs most days at
chocolateisaverb.wordpress.com and thepoetrydepartment.wordpress.com.

Photograph by Clément Gerbaud.