a pastoral poem
tethered to earth
we bind to our life
often we're fooled
to pursuits more divine
arguing with gods
our pain and our fate
we long to make sense of
the weight of the ache
here on the dirt road
life just shines thru
dust on our lips
and
sky overhead a deep azure blue
here on the dirt road
love is everything
youth is a fable
and
the wind knows your name
plum bushes bloom
in ditches defined
pink & white blossoms
(the jam tastes sublime!)
milo & coneflowers
ditch weed & broom
sunflowers & aspargus
in this quarter-mile prairie room
a thousand head of cattle
graze on fescue & rye
cranes swoop off the river
filling the sky
horses peer nonchalantly
from oak avenues
there's a haunted old church
with ghosts in its pews
wild iris unfolds
in the afternoon light
clover clusters in hollows
held bittersweet tight
a meadowlark's song
escapes from a nest
the moon rises up
to compass the west
deer come to fields
thick with willow & elm
evening drops its blackness
stars overwhelm
but here on this dirt road
love just shines on
dust on our lips
as
pale blue waits for the dawn
here on the dirt road
life is everything
youth is a fable
and
the wind knows your name
