As Hell is Windy
by bill shivley

Held fast by rocks
and wire
the wooden fence corrals
the waves of
sage and bitter,
the driven wine of rain and light

In rusty pitches
the idiotic gates that sing
out at the state road
where the cowdogs will
run them north come
home

hup Belle.

In a cactus gust
the rope what cinched
the dog house down
snapped a hand of juniper
as it danced the hill
unto the outhouse

Tall and green
below the spring
the pronghorn meadow
squeezes every cloud,
unlaxes in the
in the
latent papal sun.

If living don’t kill me
I guess I won’t die~
And when I’m all done dreaming,
I’ll come here to cry.

Salmon run in the ebbing sky,
whales sleep beyond the far humps,
not too far to ride
you can get to
Lodgepole stands,
chipmunk duels,
ducks adrift upon the pond,

Everyone dresses when they
go to town,
And for awhile there
was dances twice a year.
Stove smoke rolls and stumbles
like a song.