Brian Woerner
2023 Michelle Boisseau Prize Finalist
—
We Make a Prairie
Let’s make a prairie you said
and we walked into the stony field
here’s violets you said
I reached my hand
into the air here’s daisies
I said you took
my hand we made more of everything
milkweed wildflowers
we tied a ribbon
to a stand of trees you said
ferny things and I laughed
we didn’t forget about the foxes
the sky was pinned down
in places the moon
was so thin we could see the blue
through it we were finished
and a little hungry
and God saw that it was
but we walked home
without waiting
for the answer
tomorrow you said
what shall we make tomorrow
I said yes
Brian Woerner has taught high school English for over twenty years, and currently works at Manhasset High School in Manhasset, New York. Previous poems and essays have appeared in English Journal and Sycamore Review. He makes his home in Queens, New York, with his partner and their rescue dog.
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