PRAIRIE SKY

It doesn't take any persuasion to take me on a road trip to a little prairie town to visit our daughter and little family. Last time we drove I think the mountains became my focus and so on this 14 hour drive I set my sights a little higher and enjoyed the changing sky. Maybe next time I'll count the cars or RV's, grain elevators or rustic barns. Sigh ...

PRAIRIE SKY

The sky I know skims along rolling mountains

plummets over rocky precipices

plays hide and seek between

jagged stands of pine and fir.

The prairie sky far from my familiarity

lies flat upon it’s back

waiting for golden sunlight to

wash around it like a warm bath.

The prairie sky settles cosily on beds

of freshly tilled soil, sprouting seeds

and earth tone carpets of grain

like memory foam mattresses.

The prairie sky bubbles up in vapors

from a tabletop richly laden

with voluminous imagination rising

unbounded like a forgotten yeast dough.

The prairie sky prepares for sleep

as rosy streaked duvets wrap

farmyards winking on a vast horizon

a lunar flood light casting comforting shadows.

The prairie sky without a start, without an end

It’s expanse following me home across

majestic peaks, arboreal greenery

to valley bowls where it feels contained.

The sky I know is stretched out by my God

who covers the world with a canopy

like an airy canvas tent to live under and

gaze into, together with my prairie friends.

Trudy Peters

Going home

My familiar sky at home.