Spring 2015
Deep Roots by Ronald E. Shields
On highway 60 near Mankato
some modern day warriors
pull their trucks off-road to chase deer.
The herd stampedes
through fields of corn stubble,
past a grove of jack pines
into the open ground of hills and swales.
Here the once-black soil
hummed with wings, hooves,
everything that ever lived in the wind
and returned to the sun.
Armed with shouts and waving hands
the young men dig their heels
deep into the roots of what is left in this ground.
Behind a fence
ponies flare nostrils, paw the dirt.
The Linnet's Wings Poetry