By the way he plants his wheat, you see the country of his origin, by Laura Haynes

Laura Haynes is a former screenwriter and 2012 graduate of the Bennington
Writing Workshops. Her work can be found or is forthcoming in McSweeney’s,
Crab Orchard Review, Prime Number Magazine (2014 Poetry Prize) and Measure.
She lives in Santa Barbara.

About the poem:

“By The Way He Plants His Wheat, You See The Country Of His Origin:” I love the
brevity and directness of the sonnet, and often lean towards this form. This poem
would have been 14 lines, if I split the title into two lines, but I liked the way the long
title drew attention to itself and how that allowed it the poem to pay off better at
the end. Also, fracturing the form better reflected the ‘fracture’ I was writing about.