POETRY BY CLAIRE T. FEILD Claire T. Feild has taught English for 40 years in university, community college, high school, and middle school settings. She has had 427 poems and seven nonfiction stories published in 135 print journals and anthologies such as: The Carolina Quarterly; The Horror Zine; The Tulane Review; Literature Today; Alabama Views and Words; and Folio. Her books are Mississippi Delta Women in Prism; Southern Aunts: The Mississippi Delta; A Delta Vigil, which is about her growing up white and female in the Mississippi Delta;and Mississippi Delta Memories. Claire’s femur broke in her left leg, and the surgeons decided to put a rod in that leg and also in her right leg. She is learning how to walk again with a regular walker and a petite upright walker. CUSTODIAN The guard began his duties when he As he aged, boredom set in like a cyst, The forest where he hid was scary at To eat, he would sneak into the kitchen When he choked on a nut next to a tree, Confused, he could not recall where the He ran as if a troupe of witches were THOUGH SMALL, THE LIGHT CAPTIVATES Too dark for security to take root, we We sleep outside, the sun’s light Bolting from our plastic tents, we Soon we will fall fast into the deep- FENCE Although he lives in exorbitant fear behind As the nights turn into a ferocious black cold, When the feral snow surrounds his head A filthy woman wearing oversized jeans |