earth note 416

the wheat lands hotel
became the new sunflower inn
sometime before
the great deluge
yes the rainstorm
that flooded the rippled streets
of garden city kansas today
right after the chinese buffet
went from lunch to dinner
and everyone huddled around
the exit doors like they were
waiting for the skies to close
before a replenishment
of hot & sour soup
and the storm sewers
overflowing their capacities
within a famous kansas fifteen minutes
and then of course there was
the tornado in greensburg kansas
in 2007 that everyone remembered
& the ten lives that were cut short
& the plaque that was built
with the names & ages of the deceased
as we read their names just a hundred miles before
straddled by a line of new wind turbines
watching the clash
westerly
by southerly by northern winds
busting loose from the confines
of main street
nonexceptional america
into rolling sheets of water
and brimstone

--- e b bortz