V. Big Blue Stem Comes Back
J. Quinn Brisben
Short grass for cattle succeeds;
Wheat, which is grass, succeeds.
Corn is grass, too, though its
Kernels feed hogs and us, who
Have only one stomach and cannot
Eat grass directly but know that we
Live on grass and that seeds of
Grass are chicken feed and the
Leaves of grass are liberating
Words. Big blue stem comes back
When again it is the fashion to
Lament poison in field and stream,
Brown rivers flooding the towns,
Too inbred and fragile a gene pool
For the teeming urban burners
Of fossil fuels and poisoners of
Aquifers. Big blue stem comes back
For it is not extinct like the
Passenger pigeons that once flew
Above big blue stem and crashed
Entirely when their numbers imploded.
Big blue stem can flourish between
The lanes of interstates below
The sonic boom of fighters as it
Once flourished with the urgent
Horny boom of prairie chickens
And will again long after the fighters
Vanish. It will flourish until the
Heat makes cracked, dry land or
Until the ice advances and
Retreats once more and then
Big blue stem comes back
Again and again for as much
Forever as we can think of.
