Janice S. Fuller
a town became a granary
We pass Harrold, South Dakota,
a prairie town that’s now a granary.
Hardly any houses.
It faded, nearly disappeared —
a fragment floating
in a farmer’s eye.
The grain
has seized this town,
rules in silos and fat granaries
that point at the prosperity
of feeding the world
and fuelling its movement
with ethanol.
Harrold disappears
as we drive from Minnesota
through dust that coats our car
on the way to celebrate a birthday,
mother’s 95th.