Elk River

Sleepy town on twilight brow
Cricket swamp and firefly weeping willow in the yard

Deer dancing days away in the pasture,
within the city walls a mill turns oats
and churns grains, the young man bags for sale

Priestess in the chapel near the school street
speaks soundly to mild minds
Tame, the villagers spring forth
for Sunday coffee in the spring

Winters bellow frip and frost
mittend children stomp footprints on the moon
sliding fast down Handke hill
and pick up hockey on the pond.

Lo, the land in the river valley Mississippi
where city and country flow together
city growing and the snow falls reluctantly
yet the snow still falls.