Barbara Guest

Prairie Houses

Unreasonable lenses refract the
sensitive rabbit holes, mole dwellings and snake  
climes where twist burrow and sneeze
a native species
 
into houses
 
corresponding to hemispheric requests  
of flatness
 
euphemistically, sentimentally  
termed prairie.
 
On the earth exerting a willful pressure
 
something like a stethoscope against the breast
 
only permanent.
 
Selective engineering architectural submissiveness  
and rendering of necessity in regard to height,  
eschewment of climate exposure, elemental understandings,
constructive adjustments to vale and storm
 
historical reconstruction of early earthworks  
 
and admiration
 
for later even oriental modelling
 
for a glimpse of baronial burdening
we see it in the rafters and the staircase heaviness  
a surprise yet acting as ballast surely
 
the heavens strike hard on prairies.
 
Regard its hard—mouthed houses with their  
robust nipples the gossamer hair.
Other works by Barbara Guest...



Top