A Walk Across
Nebraska by Karen
Kelsay

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A moonbeam lilts across the picture
on the
wall, as if to brush the wavy tresses
on her mother's
image-then drops

over a wildflower bouquet that
spreads
butter-cream blooms from a silver bowl on
her
nightstand. Petals offer up an earthy scent
like Nebraska
meadowlands-

when satin bows and braids swept against

her freckled shoulders and daisies
decorated her
gingham sundress. House
sparrows nested in the gables

of her grandmother's home, and oak trees
stretched
for centuries between red barns
and wheat fields. Back
then, the sun
walked beside her through knee high grass.

Frogs disappeared into creek
beds while her
sister's piano music lifted
up into the humid twilight.
Outside the open kitchen
window, stars juggled between

overhead branches as her mother flipped
through
magazines. Flecks of moonlight wedged
between the jasmine
flowers,
and nestled in her hair.

Karen
Kelsay, who grew up in Southern California, writes
poetry
about nature and loves the sea. Her first
book,Collected Poems, was published in June of 2008.
She
enjoys writing formal and free verse poetry. Her poems
have
appeared in The Christian Science Monitor, Westward
Quarterly,Soundzine,
and several other magazines. She is author of a chapbook, “A
Fist of Roots,” by Puddinghouse Press. Visit
her website at www.karenkelsay.com.