T. R. Hummer is the author of numerous books of poetry and criticism, including Bluegrass Wasteland: Selected Poems (Arc Publications, 2005) and The Muse in the Machine: Essays on Poetry and the Anatomy of the Body Politic (University of Georgia Press, 2006). He teaches creative writing and literature at Arizona State University. Landscape with the Scent of Scorching Cabbage T. R. Hummer A vacuous prairie, dark except for one         tiny adobe house in scandalous disrepair. I lived there three or four incarnations ago,         half-naked and farting, innocent of table manners. Impossible now to understand how familiar it was.         It reflected me like a lover, fitted me Like the fine tailored suit I could never have imagined.         I was the pig in the baking sty, I was the glorious outhouse. And the crazed crock on the stove: out of that,         what miracle will my self serve my soul this time?