Real Toads: a prairie poem for Hannah

Over at the Imaginary Garden with Real Toads, we've been asked by Hannah to consider the prairie, the grasslands, the steppes: those wide, mostly flat lands in the centers of most continents.
Along with help from my prairie dog, Lindy, I'd like to bring you an illustrated poem about the prairie where I now live.
First, my prairie dog, in case you haven't met her before.

 

Lindy Davies-Schear

All the above landscapes are part of "the lone prair-ee"

WHERE COYOTES HOWL, yes indeed, but

also WHERE THE DEER AND THE ANTELOPE PLAY

the prairie

is a poem

in and

of itself

with hawks

on poles

and cattle

in the fields

feet and fire in the sky

and canola fields streak stripes

 across the landscape

cactus and

flowers

and

cactus flowers

compete with

rocks for

beauty on

the ground

prairie dogs

'n' gophers

rabbits,

horses,

deer

singing birds

and

swimming birds

and clouds

and deep

blue skies

camouflaged

 critters

insects

and snakes

rivers

and ponds

and hoodoos

are some

of the things it takes...

to make a prairie

Photos © Kay Davies and Richard Schear