Written Jan. 2, 2012, this poem appeared in my e-chapbook titled Wind Fierce as Love published a few years ago by Dead Mule School of Southern Literature.
Nebraska
Six sandhill cranes
land in a field
ringed by cottonwoods.
Dry grass,
wind-combed cornstalks,
thin snow rind in fence shade.
Chain clanging
on a metal flagpole,
Oglala drumbeat.
Weak sun setting,
half moon rising
like me without you
on New Year’s Day
in a wind
fierce as love.
Lower Sunnyslope Opera 