N Dakota

Train death paintings, anti-meth murals
Color the ghettos of N. Dakota
Bismark tractor association, coffee and toothpaste
This was vacation
I saw, while squinting, the hidden layer
In those lost-era grain elevators
Feudal beginnings, amber wave looseness
Post-Nordic grinning tired and toothless
Cigarette advertisement country
Wild and perfect, but lacking something
In Manitoba they called it boring
At night we hum to Canada’s snoring
Westbound taken, exiled Texan
From a former Dutch trade encampment
Former slave quarters tucked by the alley
Serf population too high to tally