The world’s largest open-air factory
The cornfields that sent us to space
The ethanol that is virtually useless
The prairie grass that choked out the trees
The vast grand stretches of nothing
The towns that pepper the waste
The green and the blue in the summer
The grey in the winter and dawn
The clouds that inch towards the earth
The horizon precisely defined
The vortex the Ancients called gods
The storm cells and the splendor of rain
The cities that mimic the mountains
The drawl that unites all the tribes
The dust stirred up during harvest
The endless expanse of the sky
The little green leaves of the soybeans
The liquor that passes the time
The old stone shops of downtown
The farmhouses that sprout between crops
The machines that keep it all running
The floodlights that blot out the stars
The fires that burn up the stalks
The silos that sparkle with rust
The flat that slowly creeps skyward
and grows to knee-high by July