Candy cane bull put his hoofs around his sweets
He loved sugar and peppermint, he was fond of his treats
His mother suggested wheat, soybeans or another grain born
you can eat that stuff he said, I want candy corn
Cornbelt residents rise with the sun,
Seeking geometry in soybeans.
Space aliens zoomed through the galaxy,
Just to crease someone’s corn flakes.
Intelligent life from distant stars
Avoids the formal radio waves.
They use advanced crop wrinkles
To converse with good ol’ Mother Earth.
Galactic wayfarers don’t stop at NASA,
They etch their figures in farrow.
A communication from outer space,
Which could be wiped away by a combine.
Two small-town farmers named Dave and Roy,
Armed with flashlights and sheets of plywood,
Chuckling quietly into their beers,
Designing an entirely new universe.
UFO investigators tote their gear,
Science-ing the folded wheat.
Either the universe is trying to talk to us,
Or the bar kicked them out too early.
milk, eggs, shellfish
three common allergies
I know a family who lost a two-year-old son to milk
almonds, walnuts, peanuts, wheat and soybeans
five more common allergies
if you open a peanut butter jar, it can be deadly to some
my nemesis is hazelnut
after consuming, my throat closes up
I am wheezing and can barely breathe, needing my inhaler
English walnuts are a close second for me
after eating them, my mouth erupts into giant canker sores
all around my gums
something else creates hives in me.
We do not know if it is a food or what.
allergies seem to go hand-in-hand with having asthma
other symptoms of food allergies are
itching of the mouth, vomiting, and wheezing
Food allergies are serious; sometimes epi pens are necessary.
I am not made for these modern times
Missouri mud runs through my veins
unspoiled country air flows through my lungs.
my roots are intertwined in the bedrock
of culture, traditions and folklore
of a pioneer Midwest
My heart beats with the rhythm
of wind through oak trees
the sway of golden wheat
steady fall of summer rain
on metal porch roofs
My voice is the sound
of pickup trucks on gravel roads
tractors plowing through gumbo
hoot of owls from leaning red barns.
yip of foxes or the howl of coyotes from
across green pastures under full moon’s glow
trumpeting of roosters greeting the day
song of blue jays, cardinals,
red wing blackbirds
caw of crows pecking through early snow
on harvested corn fields
beat of horse hooves
lazy bawling of cows
My nostrils are filled
with the smell of
wildflower meadows,
fresh baled hay
alfalfa, soybeans,
and apple blossoms
I am lightning bugs on summer’s eve
coon hounds asleep on sunlit porches
family picnics on red checkered tablecloths
horseshoes, freeze tag and kick the can
I am unlocked doors and open windows
rocking chairs and back porch swings
I am outdated
Four faces
ten cows
40 people
a river runs through it
Aberdeen Rapid City Sioux Falls
crops of corn soybeans
hog factory ethanol highway interstate
flat plains shadow of Rockies
sparse vast country music cowboy hats
pickups tractors American flag whackos
jacks coyotes
buffalo paddlefish grasshoppers deer crows
vulture walleye pheasants otters cattle grain
green sky derecho buffalo
ghost towns railroad
Homestake mine caves peaks
tribes pioneers reservation farms
million Big Siouxland
crickets chirp
plains old west
motorcycle rally August
blizzard snow hot humid
Some kids have dogs or cats.
I have a squirrel, Fluff-fluff.
Yesterday he took me to Old Man Flatt’s.
What am I looking at? I asked, as I gazed at stuff.
There were soybeans of course.
Far off was Farmer Flatt’s oldest horse.
Something was curving itself in the grass.
It is only a garter snake I said, as it passed.
My squirrel would not look at me after that.
He likes to pretend he is big, confident and phat.
It will not hurt you I said to Fluff-fluff.
He was embarrassed, because he likes to pretend he is tough.
my sister and I used to sit on granddaddy’s fence
staring out into a field of verdant soybeans
whispering and giggling incessantly
I remember the way she made me feel
Eureka of Archimedes was part of his daydream,
Thomas Edison nurtured his dream in bright light like gleam;
Could sleep ever overwhelm Alexander Graham Bell,
Till he heard the noise from the other and fell in a spell...?
George Washington Carver, who found in peanuts and soybeans,
Utilizations, like treasures, hidden abundant gleans;
Eli Whitney's constant daydreams gave birth to cotton gin,
That separated seeds, hulls and wastes; hearts of all did win...!
Johannes Gutenberg’s innovative printing machine,
Or John Logie Baird's mechanical television sheen;
Benjamin Franklin's lightning rod and the iron furnace,
Or Henry Ford's ventures into automobile sternness...
No invention has found its sphere devoid of day-dreaming,
This should be coalescence of action-vision creaming;
Together with concentration-shift toward internals,
Should bring forth spiritually resonant externals...!
21 November 2022
Don't Quit Your Daydream Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: craig cornish
Autumn's bounty now waits in the fields.
Sowers and keepers of the crops are
Now replaced by energetic reapers.
Dry and ready for the combine;
Brown and ripe for the harvesting;
The corn to feed the world;
The soybeans to ease hunger;
Cotton to cloth all mankind.
Like a kid fixated in wonderment,
I stop and stare along the roadside;
Observing massive machines of steel,
Rolling along the dusty fields,
Cutting and threshing and separating
the seed from the hull; corn from cobs.
The big rigs are loaded and heading
to the storage bends and buyers.
091622PS
My friend farmer Shane has perfected new breeds
His corn and soybeans he's planted from seeds,
An early morning riser,
Using no fertilizer,
He spends most of his spare time pulling weeds.
Written August 3, 2022
[for Farmer Shane]
No rain so far,
nor stormy weather.
It's late July on a
quite afternoon.
A canopy of blue, and bright
Sun light is shining through.
An oasis of white with pockets
of grey and open sky, the kind
of sky through which eagles love to soar. Gentle wind,
though tamed and shallow;
Never does it go unnoticed.
Free of Fires; smoke-free and crystal clear.
Crops of soybeans are having a very good year.
Of course, it's hot, but that's not new, nor does
it alter or hurt the changing views of the clouds.
Earthtones, more than a few; amassed with green.
Smog-free with air that's noticeably clean.
To take this for granted, I wouldn't dare.
There's so much domain in which to stare.
And too much beauty not to share.
072922PS
Sir Lavalier joined the Crusades as a young blade.
Living the life of a vagabond in many a new glade.
Curling up with more than one pretty maid.
Until he met his match in Miss Everglade.
He wanted to settle down, but this was not to be.
She told everyone “I think he wants to marry me!”
But he was called away, and was gone for three.
By the time he returned, she had two babies, wee.
Sir Lavalier was broken hearted with despair.
He traveled to every altercation and took every dare.
He never forgot the love he had for his lady fair,
But he poured his enthusiasm into all Christian care.
Trying to make all others turn to the faith in which he was born.
He did not care about their ideas or ideals, his faith never torn.
He loved this lass, whose father had raised soybeans and corn.
Forever after his heart would lament and mourn….
Sir Lavalier’s soul was never the same, to tell the truth.
His dreams always returned to the love for his Ruth.
He never fought again with the enthusiasm of his youth.
Tainted and torn, he turned to vermouth.
Have you seen what the hens and chicks have added? She asked me.
I had no idea, but I was going to be going to the succulent forest for tea.
When I arrived, I was amazed at what I found.
A mommy duck and her two ducklings swimming around.
Where did they come from? I asked the forest, but the wind laughed.
I want some too, I said to them. All I have is a stubborn giraffe!
The wind would not tell me, and the oak trees were numb.
The hens and the chicks pretended to be deaf and dumb.
Come on! I implored them. Please let me know where to find.
My own mommy duck, please have mercy; be kind.
We had her flown in from Iowa, they told me. it’s winter up there.
I asked them for the address, and boy did those hens and chicks stare.
You cannot say where you got it, they warned me with scorn.
Those farmers are tough in the land of the soybeans and corn.
They struck a hard bargain too, but I got rid of the giraffe.
So, in a way I got the very last laugh.
Sunflower Dragon was born in small town Kansas without any powers.
Did they raise soybeans? Corn? Oats? Wheat? Hay? Rye? Give up?
They raised sunflowers. They had miles and miles of sunflowers.
He looked like them too. If you don’t believe me, please ask my pup.
instant potatoes
rehydrated with gravy
cranberry jelly
slaughter of the innocent
soybeans shaped into turkey
11/9/2021
A THANKSGIVING TANKA Poetry Contest
Used HMS
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