I miss…

The beauty of early morning cirrus wisps

Splashed with color over ever-lightening sky

Stirred with rays of the morning sun, rising, rising, rising

Gleaming over golden of short shorn wheat

And vibrant green of wayside grass

Lush and lavish in sun-dappled morning glory.

I miss the dew.

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I miss…

The cool caress of wind on my face

On the late evening rides with young bright sorrel

That pulls on the reins to fly, fly, fly;

And the beauty of thick brown tail, and well- muscled legs

That stretch in quiet thunder down shadowy lane

In rhythm with the ever- rising, ever- setting sun.

I miss the catlight.

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I miss…

I miss the silence of a sun-stilled afternoon

The dreams of the summer wind as it lies still and

Asleep in wide seas of wheat where waves lap, lap, lap

Against the never giving shores of green

Until the machines come with their powerful teeth

And eat away at the waves and the silence.

I miss the dust.

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I miss…

The sharp knife of wind in snow swept prairie

Stinging on numbed cheek, embracing the wild, the fierce

And bowed head against the cold, fighting, fighting, fighting

And after that the silence, and the swirl of snow

Floating with featherlike dance to the ground.

I miss the pain of cold.

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I miss….

The horizon that stretches far and away, and I can breathe

In the glory of a star spangled night in fields of sky

That stretch out their canopy wide, wide, wide

And wider still, never hampered, never cramped

By skyscrapers and man-made malls glimmering their incandescence

But go on and on and on.

I miss the sky.

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So God, show me how to find beauty in crowded cities

Where noise runs random and unchecked and the air is thick- smogged

With smoke and sorrow and the beat of grief that chants and chants and chants.

Show me where to find it in this sewer world of sin

Where jewels lie buried deep in the debris of human forgettings

And neglect.

Undug, unsought, unknown