november colors dakota

 

honk gray geese vee tattoo

across low-flying sky’s ceiling.

 

ice-edged blue pond fingers

reedy border of dry wild rice.

 

undulating green winter wheat field

interrupted by bare windbreak.

 

peely red shed leans lopsided into

prevailing prairie headwinds.

 

buff-brown buck grazes placidly

among herd of hardy range cattle.

 

flap black crow caws contrary to

silently melting snow pile.

 

tufted straw-gold crop debris

disk-mixed into fallow, fertile soil.

 

sunny silver beams gleam earthward

 between radiant cracks in clouds.

 

inspired white church steeple points

gratefully back toward heaven.

 

love like blue mounds state park

 
rose quartzite cliff first beckons, then

bewilders inexperienced rock climber

 
merry wren on fencepost sings counter-

melody to deeper tones of brown thrasher

 
tall cottonwood and strong gnarly oak

together shelter and shade young nesters

 
gathering clouds on horizon bend to kiss

soft sloping shoulder of open prairie

 
Jupiter pulls Venus into closer orbit

two planets dance as only stars in sky

tilus series: engraved

 

cemetery gravestones

hundred years

 

old.

 

stories unsettling

pioneers

 

told.

 

 

prairie grass rustling

wind whistling

 

cold.

 

_______

written after visit to local 1880’s Lincoln Township cemetery

 

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