Reading Minnesota – Connie Colwell Miller
This week, the Reading Minnesota blog is featuring Connie Colwell Miller. Read a poem from her collection, Bodywearers, below.
I-94 Westbound through Minnesota
On a roundbale, a red-tailed hawk,
and farther down, fields of corn,
waxy eartips bent earthward
in breeze. Behind me, a swayback
barn and a silo with glint on its head.
Later, milk cows, their flanks still
and hocked, and then the lakes —
sun-side in shimmer, set-side in oil.
So, after a lengthy season of snow-sunk
cars and frozen knees and every window
cleanly frosted over, I come to this: one
perfect July evening in northern Minnesota.
And with it, the beginnings of something
like understanding. Tired Norwegian
immigrants pushing north and north
on the hottest summer days, dirtsweat
trickling down the folds in their thick
skin, and still they keep on northward.
Until suddenly — a day like this.
