Just Off Kansas Route 32
Late at night on rented land
I wandered through some scrubby growth
of roughleaf dogwood, blackjack oak,
Eastern redwood, possumhaw
and came across a tangle of bones,white puzzle pieces scattered by critters,
bleached by sun and prairie drought:
small broken ribs, a fractured pelvis,
two bovine skulls, the larger one turned
as if it were frantically searching for something.A mother and calf had died during birth
mere steps away from families in minivans
heading toward Eudora, Linwood,
Tonganoxie, Bonner Springs
and doing sixty in the eastbound lane
of the Kaw Valley Scenic Highway.
