N Dakota

Train death paintings, anti-meth murals

Color the ghettos of N. Dakota.

Bismark tractor association, coffee and toothpaste.

This was vacation...

I saw, while squinting, the hidden layer

In those lost-era grain elevators.

Feudal beginnings, amber wave looseness,

Post-Nordic grinning tired and toothless.

Cigarette advertisement country,

Wild and perfect, but lacking something.

In Manitoba they called it boring,

At night we hum to Canada's snoring.

Westbound taken, exiled Texan

From a former Dutch trade encampment.

Former slave quarters tucked by the alley.

Serf population too high to tally.