-Clarence Holm

I held to my blankets as the morning dew lifted today
Picturing pastures, hay stacks, and friends long gone away.
Red winged blackbirds all sang in chorus, greeting the rising sun
While distant machinery rumbled, day has just begun.

Cottonwood sentinels towered above the prairie slough,
Guarding a dabbling mallard, whose mate appeared overdue.
In the nearby water’s edge, tall cat tails offer private cover
For six young ducklings from predators who constantly hover.

A sweet spring meadow surrenders its blooming
To tall eared rabbits who warily listen for danger looming
From hawks circling in clear blue skies overhead,
Or a fox and her pups that play happily on a grass lined bed.

Nearby a rutted prairie pathway traces off into the distance
Past fields once tended and yielding one family’s subsistence.
Where value was given to man’s effort, created each day
By sweat of a brow the results placed on display.

I fight to remain past morning reverie,
To escape today’s mind-numbing drudgery.
Precious visions gleaned from memoirs content
Will have to do till I finish my lament.