Fall 2009, Volume 7

Poetry by Sheryl Nelms

Canadian Cold Front

eighty mile an hour wind
and ten inches of snow
rearranges the cattle

sends them up and over the fences

drifting
to the east
as the cold front
moves through South Dakota
into Minnesota

sends the Charolais bull and thirty-three head
of Angus cows with calves at side
east past Pipestone

last seen they were
at the Dale Kuntson farm
and movin on

Montana Wind

it rushes up
through the dry grass
pushes the antelope
over the ridge

drops off
the limestone cliff

rolls along the slope
through the scrub cedar

rattles the branches
shakes a nesting
turtle dove
into flight

riffles out across the Rosebud River

catches in the thorns
of the plum thicket
rimming the bank

and lays down
dying

moaning its wau ya pi song

                          

BIO: Sheryl Nelms is the author of thirteen collections of poetry and numerous stories and articles. She makes a living as an insurance adjuster and, at times, is a painter, a weaver and an old dirt biker.