The Plains of California
©2022 by Vernon Miles Kerr and VernonMilesKerr.com
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Big gash on North America's face,
Fully visible from space.
Ohio with palm trees—
Winter's Bowl of Foggy Frost
Summer's scorchy slab of yellow grass
And heat-shimmering vista of parallel rows of
Orderly vineyard and orchard, diminishing to a point
Old receptical for Dust Bowl Refugees,
Older, pathway for Gold-thirsty zealots wielding pick and shovel,
Still older, indigenous, riparian wanderers
Rummaging along sinuous green traces of rivers
Across the yellow-brown flats
While engulfed in wafting waves of wildflower scent.
Still more ancient, Bed of an Inland Ocean
Awaiting the Sea's return.
And it will return,
When this Ice Age completes.