(a Lutheran primer, in sepia)

1
the farm was wound :: you would not
think it

black loam          rolling tiled fields

none 
of it his :: though he tilled

and baled

boy standing :: misericord
on

running board ::

corn dust billowing 

from the pump (he drinks)
(they

let him drink) :: sola

scriptura      sola fide ::

tractor seat     church pew     silo ::

drowned him all

2
balanced      on a dare once 
the high 

rim :: saw down below 
the sea

of corn :: the toothed
stacked

wealth

of it :: knew its yellow 
was 

money :: its pollen 

money :: the fields

laid down

finally 
for winter           money 

3
then seizure           moonlight
as if

a length of it
called

brother

had been chainsawed
through ::

set in the bed :: blue lips
choking nickel and

dime

the father’s body-debt ::
the

clogged-
valve-

net-worth-
pinching-weight of it ::

father chambered ::
already

pharaoh :: snoring ::

second son awake :: released
to

his wakefulness :: singing
sola

gratia                prodigal 
godless 

desert snow          down by the creek

Dennis Hinrichsen’s most recent work is Dominion + Selected Poems from Green Linden Press. He has new work appearing or forthcoming in ballast, The Indianapolis Review, Midwest Review, South Florida Poetry Journal, Swing and Third Coast. He lives in Lansing, Michigan.