Iowa

I love you Iowa
because you are so far from everything
even listening to the car radio seems out of place
driving past the greedy rows of corn and soybeans
feedlots for doomed muddy livestock
broken down barns
rusting hulks of tractors
small town squares

smaller churches
and slow, spreading rivers.

I love you, Iowa, but
something closer to silence
belongs here 

where rants of Heaven and Hell fill the air

where there is no place to hide

in Lost Nation and
no forgetful slumber in Nodaway
where towns like Buena Vista,
East Peru, Holland and Jamaica
are poor disguises for prairie life

Iowa, I love you though your land
Is unforgiving
blesses with fertility
curses with isolation
feeds the cattle
starves the children's souls
grows healthy men and women
who wear tradition like a blindfold
and use religion like a cattle prod