The Woman Who’s Trapped Beneath the Seasons by Laura Chester

She walks away--from the house holding onto her first child big in the belly knowing her husband is taking another woman. The sky presses down on her weight. She sees--smashed in the fields good melons a farmer, down on his knees over ripped vines his hands heavy on the ground. From “In the Zone: New Selected Writing” (Black Sparrow Press: $20, cloth; $12.50, paper; 231 pp.) Chester is the author of more than 10 volumes of poetry, fiction and nonfiction. She lives in the Berkshires of Massachusetts with her two sons, Clovis and Ayler. The poem above is the first of four by Chester on pregnancy and related themes to be reprinted in Book Review over the coming weeks. 1988, Laura Chester. Reprinted by permission of Black Sparrow Press.