Beneath the grass

People seeing it for the first time

called it, variously, jungle or

desert, the grasses taller than

a man on horseback. Westward

wagon trains passed lightly 

along ruts carved through 

by natives or buffalo or fire

or previous trail cutters,

grasses simultaneous wonder 

and irritation. No one looked,

or realized, what was beneath

the grasses, vast and deep

communities of insects, roots,

soil, reptiles, bacteria, organisms

of the grasses often as deep as

the grasses visible. Not until

the farmers came, paused,

then stopped, did what was

underneath become an object

to consider, a barrier, an obstacle,

something only useful for a roof, 

to expose the soil below, waiting

for the wind.

The editors of Tweetspeak Poetry are hosting a 30-Day, 30-Poem Challenge for Earth Month entitled, appropriately enough, Poetic Earth Month. Today, the featured poem is “Do the Shells” by L.L. Barkat, and the poetry promptis to consider the “deep-downness” of things. 

Photograph: Restored prairie at Shaw Nature Reserve, Franklin County, Missouri.