"Meadows Are Burning in My Sleep" by Carolyn Adams

Meadows open like books

toward the horizon,

pitch and swell with

prairie language.

I know I am in a dream,

and this is my way

of disappearing.

A fire has grown

in the lower forty.

I smell the switch-grass 

turning to ash. 

The glow of flame 

is blinding. 

I’m slipping further

into smoke shadows,

as I read the long text

of this story in its density.

This is not a fire I want 

to extinguish. 

I want to read it 

all night.

Carolyn Adams’ poetry and art have appeared in Steam Ticket, Cimarron Review, Evening Street Review, Inflection Review, and Blueline Magazine, among others. She is the editor and publisher of the Oregon Poetry Calendar. Having authored four chapbooks, her full-length volume, Going Out to Gather has been published by Fernwood Press. She has been nominated multiple times for both Best of the Net and a Pushcart prize.