You say this is how you got fast, running this hill in the siege, your wheelbarrow shuttling jugs of water up from the brewery below. Sweating, heart pounding, flashing in and out of the sniper's sights. His comrade's shrapnel had already lodged in you, that first October, inches from your spine. The time you were in a neighbor's field, snaking just to glean a few potatoes or pears that might have secretly come to term. ---Thomas Simpson