Once implacably Grasses and Buffalo,
flatness was made over with cotton, grain, and dust.

The last meat boiled over dried dung -
        left an empty in the vast heart of changing nature.
For this reason with reverence
        the last iron ovens are regarded.

As if somewhere – a Harmony
        we should practice forever.
As if Humans were not the only
        landmarks upon the Lost Prairie.


© Carlton Godbold 1987

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