DOUGLAS COUNTY

Dusk falls on the Central Lowlands,

onto the Kaw and Wakarusa Rivers.

Out onto Vinland and Pleasant Grove

and Globe and Lone Star

gray water runs black.

And then the evening

like a tall woman

formal in mourning

fades feature by feature...

And the wordless moon

sinks into dark arms

...like Douglas County.

--in A KANSAS SEQUENCE, Tellus/Cottonwood,
1983, p.32.

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WEST WIND AT LAWRENCE

At midnight, late June

in Lawrence

the west wind wanders in

over the plains

from Manhattan and Topeka

like a violin lost

in the slow movement

of a Russian concerto.

We look toward Cassiopeia

and pray for Dmitri Shostakovich

saying:

        Caph

        Schedar

        Navi

        Ruchbah.

 
--in A KANSAS SEQUENCE, Tellus/ Cottonwood,
1983, p.44.

HIAWATHA

In late October

when the full moon

shines over Hiawatha

in the early evening

trucks line up under the grain elevator

like children waiting for halloween candy

at the home of a good neighbor.

People walk like ghosts

under rows of maple trees.

And grain comes down

like manna

and candy

and the full moon

and the leaves

of the maples

fall.

in A KANSAS SEQUENCE, Tellus/Cottonwood,
1983, p.58.

All poetry on this page
Copyright © by Victor Contoski, 2006 

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