Geraldine Green
Crossing the Prairie
there goes green corn ripe as an angel
fierce as a tornado green as a tomato
her cougar skin rippling
her bright eyes dazed with dust and headlights
she's crossing her prairie dragging her greencorn song of misery
gold corn:upright as telegraph poles
gold corn: cracked as a young boy's knuckles
gold corn lining the freeways
boy whistles wind
wind comes running
wind combs her back of greengold corn
for a hundred miles combs greencorn hair
nightstars crackle
moonwafer breaks open
at dawn deluge of buffalo
at dawn their ghosts cross the plain
at dawn the notorious herd of steam
their outrageous breath
their sweat and blood
sinews and bones
these ghosts of buffalo
these man-haunting bison
ghost bison pound earth their hooves the pestle
this land their mortar
look! a city catapults itself across the sky
a wave of cities a deluge of buffalo
a rivering of ghosts
grass cracked moons
grass tricky as coyote
grasses spilling greengold handsome as cougar
clouds loll together like youths on street corners
moonmirror cracks --
buffalo stampede through it.