Parkersburg, Iowa
On the horizon yet long ago, or perhaps yet to come, I glimpsed two trees with branches broadly bent across the sky and wind. And I wished that I might visit their shade and drink from the cool stream upon whose banks they stood. This desolate prairie of heat and time is simply unable to shield and shade – but those two trees (burr oaks, I believe) are there upon the horizon and their presence offers to my mind the possibility of hope and grace.