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| IT WAS A DAY IN FALL The setting sun – a flat pale disc in the western sky Gave out a sickly glint Outlining the weathered trees as they reached Empty boughs begging for warm cloaks of green Their once rich wardrobe crackling Beneath the slapping of homeward seeking feet A purple shadowed shawl settled about the old maples limbs And the goldfish bobbed about like apples in the pond Pinioned there by a thin and icy glaze Sunset turned the sky from lavender rose to gray A flock of honking geese envisioning a shortcut Across the rising moon were painted - in a perfect sideways “v” by Sheryl McCurdy |
| ABOVE THE PLAINS Stars in the Nebraska sky seem too far away Until you live in the city then They outshine anything else you can imagine Even in the winter Especially in the winter Outside about midnight On our splintery deck I’ve often huddled My breath puffing in the frosted air Sometimes I lay flat on my back just staring Until I get so dizzy I have to close my eyes There isn’t anything like it No storefront window display can compare No laser show No birthday cake No Christmas tree No nothing like it Except the winter sky of a Nebraska midnight by Sheryl McCurdy |
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| REMAINING WILD Deep inside the prairie grasses There lives my heart Roaming free Wild beneath the wings of hot breezes Basking beside the shores of winding creeks Pressed against the mossy banks beside the willows High above the furrowed fields beating in the breast of the eagle Even in despair…even then, you will find me there… When the days are white with heat and shimmer and dance with a life of their own When day after day the same old dusty ballets are performed When the cedar trees are wailing under the burning of the searing gusts When the dying corn bends toward wilting knees praying for the rain Even then, even then My wild prairie heart will remain by Sheryl McCurdy |
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