Ruth 3:8
And it came to pass at midnight that the man was
afraid and turned himself: and behold a woman
lay at his feet.
Boaz was not a young man
and about him little is known before
Ruth came into the threshingfloor washed
anointed to lie at his feet. A stranger
to the Ephrathite she could not fathom
the love that brought her from Moab
clinging to Naomi; and he could not
rest from the moment she woke him.
Alone so long without reprieve
he had forgotten a life
no longer his
wanted as the flesh is
before it’s been had and after again
in the numberless days of plowing
sowing
reaping
and threshing.
Yet once
there was a woman . . .
And the fields were still there the rows
of barley—after harvest
an emptiness to be reworked
against drought and pestilence
fear at midnight
that nothing would come of it again
much less the old love he felt turning himself
as Ruth removed his shoes.