[Md-sligo] FW: Magnets and Ladders

[Jacobson, Shawn D]

It is nice to get this kind of news when you come into work in the morning.

Note, I have copied the poem in question at the bottom of the Email.

Shawn

From: magnetsandladders at comcast.net <magnetsandladders at comcast.net>
Sent: Thursday, April 04, 2019 8:46 PM
To: Jacobson, Shawn D <Shawn.D.Jacobson at hud.gov>
Subject: Magnets and Ladders

Dear Shawn,

Congratulations! Your poem, "Tumbleweed" is the First Place winner in the Magnets and Ladders Spring/Summer poetry contest. If you did not include your address with your submission, please send it so that you can receive your prize of $30.

Your poems, "Okie" and "The Furloughed Knight" will also be published.

Congratulations,

The Magnets and Ladders team



Tumbleweed, poetry

Borne upon the wind,
the flying bushes of the plains
sail across the road.

Heading out from Pueblo going east,
we leave the mountain's grandeur in our wake,
and enter upon plains with flat expanse,
vast in reach, unbounded and so free.

A wind arises from the howling north,
a sky of cloudless blue turns dusty brown.
I hear the keening in the chilly air;
a storm is calling through the empty land.

And then I see a sight unique with wonder.
A drove of plants the size of steers arrives
sailing across the emptiness around us,
flying over unencumbered land.

We flinch as these weeds cross the road ahead;
So sudden, collisions cannot be avoided.
They slam the car with slapping thudding sound,
breaking themselves on our metallic helm.

Through prairie towns our tumble weeded way
takes us in our eastward journey home:
La Junta, Lamar, Garden and Dodge cities,
and smaller towns swallowed by emptiness.

In time we'll leave this empty widespread realm
and eastward find familiar fenced-in land
of cities reaching skyward in their might,
and bid nature around it mind her place.

But memory of this forgotten space
will linger as we contemplate the sight
of dusty skies that tell of distant storms
and plants that sail through, empty prairie skys.

Over unfenced land
Flying bushes travel free
across memory.

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