Apollinaire in Iowa
After “Les Colchiques”
The prairie is poisonous but pretty in autumn
the cows all graze in it
slowly polluting themselves
the aster’s burnt disc and lilac rays bloom there
your eyes blaze like that flower
fired at the center and like this autumn
my life for your eyes sips poison
The kids come tumbling out of the bus with a rumpus
wearing jackets and adjusting earbuds
they gather the asters that are like mothers
daughter’s daughters and the color of your eyelids
trembling like petals in the delirious breeze
Monsanto is on the radio
while slow and lowing the cows abandon
for good this prairie blooming with toxic flowers
***
Hai-Dang Phan, an assistant professor of English at Grinnell College, is working on his first poetry collection.
