Grandma's homestead, North Dakota

  

NASA WANTED TO BLOW UP THE MOON TO

IMPRESS THE RUSSIANS

 

But it’s still here.  A full moon as beautiful as it was

before nuclear weapons.  In my windshield as I drive

by overgrazed pastures, with thickets of rusting red

cedars from a summer of extraordinary drought and

wildfire.  And past a signpost advertising Bob White

Quail for Sale.  A once sleepy Canadian River bottom

farm town visible in the distance, permanently awakened

by a colossal illuminated casino sign.  Herds of weary

drilling men in white pick-ups race past, riding ass all

the way to fracking boom sites in Calumet, Tonkawa. 

 

I’ve seen dozens of full moons like this one on countless

morning commutes to a soulless job in the big city. 

Working on third cup of black coffee.  Radio off.  Trying

like hell to keep attentive to the insignificant wonders

along this lonely highway.