Plea
by Sean Sexton
An evening has passed, and a young cow is still crying
among the herd this morning like the widow in the Bible
who wouldn’t leave an ill-tempered judge alone, and though
the judge neither feared God nor regarded man, he relented,
annoyed to at last attend to what was unsettling her.
And so I’ve ridden out into the pasture to see what could be
the matter: did she misplace her calf as my wife might’ve left
her purse at the theatre? Or perhaps he’s departed—tooth
and claw in pursuit— to the stars, as she’d have us believe
in her present anguish. There is nothing to find amid the indolent
drove, no tell-tale tuft, track, nor bleat to color the winsome
air. So, her pet grief goes unanswered, insufferable, while mist
has risen in the distance, grown upon itself obscuring a world
it brings to our door, whispering onto dripping eaves,
rattling in the downspout the earth’s own soliloquy.
Sean Sexton was born in Indian River County and grew up on his family's Treasure Hammock Ranch. He divides his time between managing a 700-acre cow-calf and seed stock operation, painting, and writing. He is author of Blood Writing, Poems, Anhinga Press, 2009, The Empty Tomb, University of Alabama Slash Pine Press, 2014, Descent, and May Darkness Restore, Poems, Press 53, 2019. His third full poetry collection, “Portals,” is due out this fall. He has performed at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, NV, Miami Book Fair International, Other Words Literary Conference in Tampa, FL and the High Road Poetry and Short Fiction Festival, in Winston Salem, NC. He was nominated for a 2020 Pushcart Prize and received a FL Individual Artist’s Fellowship in 2001. He is a board member of the Laura Riding Jackson Foundation (Lauraridingjackson.org) and founding event chair of the Annual Poetry and Barbeque held each April, now in its tenth year. He also co-founded Poetry and Organ Advent and Lenten Concert Series at Community Church in Vero Beach, FL (ccovb.org) featuring nine concerts annually attracting poets from all over the US. He became inaugural Poet Laureate of Indian River County in 2016.
