Ode To Minnesota  5/5/98

I'm sitting here, in the realm of what the god's call Paradise...
Minnesota in the summer time (and it ain't even summer yet).

Oh, Minnesota!
    How i spite your winters
       freezing everything i love
   without repent

And yet
I sit here in the thickness, the stillness.
I can differentiate the scents in the air, from grass to weeds to trees...
You're nectar to me, the blossoms of bushes and lilacs around the corner.  
Then tulips waft by with a cottonwood seed.  
and the oak above sways gently.  Yes, it likes me 
and the squirrels i feed are inside resting peacefully now, i'm sure.

Oh Minnesota!
   You're heaven's land -
       your gracious greens and waters.
Minnehaha, grace my feet.  You ripple smoothly
as i watch the moon on the water.
Night air...i breathe so much my skin is fair.
It's evening.  
The world fell silent, yet this melody plays.
A harmony of leaves and crickets...now a frog or two.
And the irises i can see, are growing.

Hypnotic.  It subdues me.
You fill me.
You rule me

You crush me with your cruelty!
How can you bring such horrific snows 
that freeze your fingers 
and burn your toes
before you reach the sidewalk!?!?