Hour 22   Great Flood of 2011                         Mary Pecaut

Inspired by Unattributed Photo

 

Great Flood of 2011 

 

Some things we cannot know.

Some know.  Some think they know.

Some things are better unknown.

 

Mid-afternoon, under a summer sky 

where three states shake hands

under the watchful eye of Chief War Eagle

miles from the Muddy Missouri’s banks,

you pull off the highway

to investigate flooded fields of maize.

 

Snowmelt in the northern Rockies

& rain – a year’s worth in three weeks-

swallow its way across the Plains

engorge reservoirs and dams

 

Here we stand, gone a decade 

Sand bagging & prayers were not enough.

 

Baseball fields along Nebraska banks

abandoned – soil too toxic for children to play ball.

Once-tree lined bike paths from South Dakota 

to Iowa reminiscent of an apocalyptic film

 

This is what it’s like to lose it all