I Saw In Effigy The Prairies

I saw in effigy the prairies
as if nothing had ever been
but that expanse under starlight;

carnation pink the light of afternoons; that
tint of the prairie rose
I wanted so to live in

when I was young.

water towers waver in sunlight;
the silos too.
and through the miniature downtowns

the first snows fly and
the squared off town squares shine.
and was this mine? and is it true that

soon husking will be done and one
by one the little farms blink out like
ruddy stars we remember

in the long grasses?
everything passes.

but I see, as in a glass
or in snow panes of the white frame houses
with the well shingled roofs

built against inevitable storms

some self effacing loveliness I cannot be torn from,
eternal heartache born of the wind and sun
that the wagon wheels,

move on.

mary angela douglas 7 january 2016

P.S. I owe the exquisite phrase "snow panes" to my sister, Sharon F. Douglas and I hope she doesn't mind my using it here; it really fit in the poem like a sparkling snowdrift of her music and I used it only for the sake of Beauty.