I have written poetry and short fiction all my life and published a lot of it. My day job is editor of a trade publication Illinois Racing News. I live on a small horse farm in northern Illinois with my husband and various animals. My latest book, "Ribcage," (from Glass Lyre Press) recently won the 2015 Kithara Book Prize. I also am an associate editor of FutureCycle Press and Kentucky Review.

Between Clinton and Normal

​
Low hills creep toward the
horizon studded with
brown and white cows
scrubby trees. Hues of earth
mustard, blonde and black
slice off against a steel blade of sky.

Two ungainly crows flap by
cawing against a raw intermittent wind.
A sagging barn throws open
ramshackle arms to weather.
Within, piles of moldy straw
await the fairytale maiden
who spins the light to gold.

In the fields, prefabricated houses
plot with swing sets to redefine
rural time. A chunk of machinery
high on the side of a grain elevator
hangs like a one-armed giant
in calm suspension.
Lord of chores, Lord of the necessary.

Below, a noisy tractor
chants a magic spell
to spin the loam to harvest.

A stocky man
in a long-billed cap
dismounts from the tractor
to gaze at a dirt yard
where a child circles
on a red tricycle
fat legs pumping
eyes set and blue
a little furnace of determination
going somewhere
going somewhere.

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