How to Make a Corn Maze
How to Make a Corn Maze
Buy some land close to town.
Flatland, good for nothing else.
Buy hybrid corn
Engineered by Monsanto
To grow to a monstrous height.
Hire a kid to plow, plant,
Spray, cultivate, while you wait
Over lukewarm coffee in the cafe,
Listening to the farmers talk.
Keep a worried eye
On the weather.
Rent a Clear Channel billboard
Along the county highway.
Resist the urge to make
A pun on maize.
Go to the library and
Study the patterns
Of the Aztecs and Mayans,
The sand mandalas
Of the Tibetans,
The hedge mazes
Of Renaissance gardens.
Then draw the maze
In mechanical pencil,
Making the pattern
More complicated.
Remember your intention:
To make a man
Who has always known
Where he is
Admit he’s lost.
You know this man.
The doctor who cracked
His knuckles before
He told you the bad news.
The lawyer you suspected
Of being in secret sympathy
With your ex-wife.
The head football coach,
Who takes such pride
In his knowledge of a field.
When the corn begins to rust,
Have the kid cut it
According to your design.
If you don’t get lost
Walking it yourself,
It’s no good.
Hire some teens
To run it for you.
You don’t even need
To be there.
You can sit on your porch
Through the late autumn nights,
Leaves skittering
Over the sidewalks.
He has just admitted
He doesn’t know which way to go,
While you, you know
Precisely where you are.