I. Davenport Iowa

laced between
Le Claire & Maquoketa
the river carved prairie crossroads
in pinstripes fell the corn rows

midwinter arbors & maywet fields
kneeled to their visitors

her city's energy channeled
on stained cathedral glass

imposing homes wear their mourning veils to sow her plains in repentance

I. Davenport Iowa

laced between
Le Claire & Maquoketa
the river carved prairie crossroads
in pinstripes fell the corn rows

midwinter arbors & maywet fields
kneeled to their visitors

her city's energy channeled
on stained cathedral glass

imposing homes wear their mourning veils to sow her plains in repentance

II. Shirley Berman

she sculpted symmetries in
the skeletal garden,
    drowned daisies in hymnal verse

bay window peripheries marveled
as she dissembled vegetation

    the thickets followed, grasping

she wore a raincoat to drain
the poppies in her fingers—

awnings envious
of her well-placed brow

III. Composite with nude

haphazard lawns worship
limestone mausoleums
where asters once bloomed

earth recaptures her fleshy chest
& exposed skin
    in opal pools she fizzles incomplete