Prairie Gold

The green gold of prairie fields was mine
Till Spring.
And mine the brilliant blue of my mother's lakes.
I delighted in the ladybug's black wing
And the turquoise hidden in the down of birds.
Bright orange was the factory's spurting flame
And auburn the roof of my brother's barns.
Till Spring.

A sudden thaw broke all resisting banks
And burst the floodway of my sight.

But the murmur of wind amid cedar and pine was mine
In early Spring.
And mine the music of books and rain and splashing cars.
Freely my visions raced across the prairie blue
With meadow larks, sailboats, skateboards skidding through.

Lysol, I.V.s, intercoms,
Pneumatic wheels gliding along narrow halls.
Needles, distant whispers of pain shushed to sleep;
And then my dreams lay in prairie grass.

My eternal summer shall not fade
In the halls of my father's home
Where my fancies shall freely race
Across fields of prairie gold.

- (c) Uma Parameswaran

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photo by Nikos Kasseris İFUTURE MEDIA