(These are excerpts—click on the title to view the whole piece!)
 

Poem to be Placed in the Middle of a Manuscript of Flower Poems, Written on a Wednesday, Garbage Day, in Normal, Illinois

Surely, these poems are about me,
a Normal woman bending to dig
 

Nameless Creek

I was thinking of humility,
of being broken down to gravel
 

Juncos

My mother
loves them as I do, for their modest, persistent
beauty.