mid-western disaster

Linking late to Linda’s “water” prompt at dVerse poetics


 

water, water, water, everywhere!
dark clouds broiling across plains’
hard-crusted snowy landscape; soil
soaked by heavy rains, washes into
half-frozen rivers, ice breaks loose
floating icebergs grind along banks
dragging down bridges, trees, poles;
pressured dam gives way into torrent
that floods downstream in spreading
wave that engulfs barns, farmhouses’
families escape on muddy roads while
cattle are trapped on shrinking islands
hay bales swept away, fields ruined and
Nebraska is once again a broad ocean…

 

 

 

 

 

 

man of the land

 

salt of the earth

faithful steward of the soil

guardian of God’s garden

patiently waits for harvest

impatiently wrestles with weather

muscular and tanned from

carrying wet calves

throwing dry bales

created from dust with

dirt under his fingernails

 

…to dust someday must return

 


A quadrille of 44 words on the theme of  “earth”.