Prairie Vespers: when the chokecherries are black moon
Red-winged Blackbird, Meadowlark
soft prairie songs
silence, coyotes listening on the horizon
- Gwendolyn Morgan, “Prairie Vespers” in Moon Water, An Anthology by Spell Jar Press, edited by M.E. Keyes and Daniel Niv, (2024), p. 138.
In this transitional time, stepping further into Autumn, we move from Moon to Moon, lunar, solar, celestial shifts. Blackberries once drooping from the vine are found in round jars of jam. The last Yellow Dahlias, Sunflowers, and falling leaves filling spaces between with orange, topaz and cinnamon brown earth colors. Autumn migration, the flocks of winged ones continue heading south, their voices overhead a guide to this moment. The rains return, with rivulets of water, tears on our faces, hope held lightly as feathers in our hands. We move from woodlands to Salish Sea to prairie and back again. We too are listening on the horizon.