KANSAS

KANSAS


Have you seen in rolling nimbus cross the plains
or looked heavenward as dark sky is fractured
by gesticulating light? Have you felt the blast of the Rockies 800 miles east
or the thunderous pound on your chest from sky creased?

Have you heard the horns of the Calvary
or the songs of the Arapaho, Comanche, Kansa, Kiowa, Osage and Pawnee
on the prairie breeze? Have you found yourself under the watchful eye of a Jayhawk
or chased by Wild Cats and Wheat Shocks?

Have you received a warm wave from a stranger on a back road
or an elder in a chair on a white paint flecked porch? Have you seen sunflowers forever
or a farmer’s arm over his boy’s shoulder
at sunset walking home for dinner?

Have you seen the wood people adorning Wichita
or felt the ancestor's presence at a Powwow? Have you seen the sky boil, rotate
suddenly descend in fury; beautiful, captivating, foreboding, destructive
and sparing in twisting motion?

Have you experienced the hospitality of the people of Howard
or felt the birth pains of the Civil War in Lawrence and her sister
Pottawatomie? Have you heard the Wagon Master's “Hoa!”
on an autumn day in Morse, where the Santa Fe and California trails cross?

These surface on waves to ride crests of the prairie sea
coaxed by the undercurrents of Kansas.