So what if intellect is less supple
than it used to be, dried out,

and most of your thoughts
scatter like chaff.

What survives this winnowing
is ripe; and it will be enough

to come into the storehouse
with only a handful of such grain.

About the poet: Don Thompson was born and raised in Bakersfield, California, and has lived in the southern San Joaquin Valley for most of his life. Now retired from teaching in the prison system, he lives with his wife, Chris, on her family's cotton farm in the house that has been home to four generations. Thompson has been publishing poetry since the early sixties, including a half dozen books and chapbooks. Most recently, Local Color, a book-length narrative poem has been released by Kelsay Books along with Keeping an Eye on the Stones, prose poems from Katywompus Press; another selection of prose poems, Nietzsche Wept, is forthcoming from Finishing Line.