From a Country Overlooked

Tom Hennen

 There are no creatures you cannot love.

 A frog calling at God 

From the moon-filled ditch 

As you stand on the country road in the June night. 

The sound is enough to make the stars weep 

With happiness. 

In the morning the landscape green 

Is lifted off the ground by the scent of grass. 

The day is carried across its hours 

Without any effort by the shining insects 

That are living their secret lives. 

The space between the prairie horizons

 Makes us ache with its beauty. 

Cottonwood leaves click in an ancient tongue 

To the farthest cold dark in the universe. 

The cottonwood also talks to you 

Of breeze and speckled sunlight. 

You are at home in these 

great empty places 

along with red-wing blackbirds and sloughs.

 You are comfortable in this spot 

so full of grace and being 

that it sparkles like jewels 

spilled on water.