Silvana Cenci’s Spring Tooth Harrow

Polarized image of Silvana Cenci's Spring Tooth Harrow
CC Jean Stimmell: 03/04/14

Silvana Cenci’s Spring Tooth Harrow *

Struggling in the midst of divorce

with no firewood cut for winter

I answered an ad: “wood for sale.”

That’s how I met a unique soul

known as “the dynamite lady”

who used high explosives

to blow up metal to create art

known around the world.

Silvana Cenci was her name.

When I came by to pick up my first load

She told me in her rich Italian accent

how her father was a famous anarchist

and so was she, living life
according to her own rules:

and “If people don’t like it,

they can fuck off and drop dead.”

She talked with her hands, gesturing

with her chain-smoked, unfiltered cigarettes

weaving a spell in words and smoke

enveloping me as I loaded my wood.

When she paused to offer me a cigarette

I carefully explained how I had quit

but promptly smoked one anyhow

inhaling the smoke felt illicit and intoxicating

like I had joined a revolutionary movement.

Each time I came by for wood

we talked and smoked

 and soon became friends.

She told me she had reached an age

where it was time to make a change.

She was selling off everything

to move to the Arizona desert

where she would support herself

selling hotdogs from a food cart

pulled by a camel.

Wanting to buy something else

to help her on her quest

I offered to buy

her ancient harrow

festooned with weeds,

thinking I could use it to till

my homestead garden.

But she said “absolutely not.”

This was not a farm implement

but a precious piece of art which

she’d always intended to mount on

the side of her studio.

I was finally able to make a deal

buying the harrow for fifteen dollars

only after I promised to cherish it

as a piece of art.

That winter I burned the wood

and had honorable intentions

to mount the old harrow

on the side of my barn.

But somehow now

30 years have passed

and my ancient harrow

still stands abandoned

in the dirty snow

at the edge of my field.

While composing this photograph

of Silvana's spring tooth harrow,

my memories came rushing back

of this remarkable person

 now departed to her home

to join the legendary ranks

of the mythic gods of Rome.

See: www.silvanacenci.com/index.html

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* A spring-tooth harrow is outdated piece of farm equipment that uses many flexible iron teeth mounted in rows to loosen the soil before planting.