Kansas Plains

[1]

the power of words
over an endless skyway
rainstorms cross the plain

[2]

subterranean
sunflower seeds burn bright red
while the kettle’s on

[3]

cactus-court stairway
jackalopes surround the lake
honeysuckle whines

[4]

daughters and mothers
share sympathetic magic
beautiful troubles

[5]

prairie alchemists
write to moon-stained goddesses
riding their shotguns

[6]

dragon kite’s mélange
blocks early spring geese pathways
stirs starry-waters

[7]

satisfied with dirt
left in homes of famous dead
animus returns

[8]

havoc in the house
reaches darkening porches
crowds face their railroads

[9]

wild words appear
as poets chase the weather
open thunder-skies

[10]

tempests, tornadoes
their second spring lives out loud
naming the fires

[11]

no face, just slippage
as they complete Topeka
talk forbidden words

[12]

the dark glass woman
still weeps in prairie graveyards
a portrait for two

[13]

imagine the woods
unnaturally nappy
as poems uncurl

[14]

earthy luck rebirths
glancing old blood calendars
ghosts come back to town

[15]

promises suppose
possible geographies
sheltering shadows

[16]

through the open doors
into dream-realities
in this good warm place

[17]

take inventory
for middle-aged assemblage
watch contortionists

[18]

Kansas fields awake
let their summer games begin
beware of tourists

[19]

recalling Lot’s wife
memory slips a little
on its way back home

[20]

women have landed
inside booths, outside the door
let’s begin again

. . . . .

Poet: Susan Powers Bourne
Source: Kansas Women Poets
Process: Mixed cento haiku