Come for a walk on the prairie.
Bobolinks and bluebirds are calling.
Contemplate a bee on a coneflower
while yet you can.
She will not stay for you.
The white dog and a green-eyed woman lead us down the path.
The bluestem is matted where deer have bedded down.
Milk snakes and box turtles lurk unseen.
The swallows twist and glide over the tall grass.
They loop and turn through the swarming banquet.
In the grove, beside the prairie black walnuts and acorns abound.
The black pearl eyes of feathered apes observe us
Beside the hickory and wild cherry
runs a smooth and level path.
The man-made lane eases our way.
At the side of the road,
chicory blooms sway in their violet blueness
They saw bare, brown feet pass by.
On the same path, trod hard shod horses.
The blooms bowed to steel wheels smoking past.
In a rusty, dented truck,
I am drawn to their fragile mellow blue.
I trust them like my own daughters.
They will die and return again and again and again.
I bloom once and once only.
.